Summer is drawing to an end. I was reminded of this fact just this last weekend as we were trailer-camping in a state park not far from our home when a storm blew in from the Pacific, knocking down trees and disrupting power. We were unaffected, other than losing power at our campsite for the last day of our visit. It became a learning experience for us as we’d not relied on our trailer’s batteries alone for that length of time before. It worked well!
Windstorms aren’t that unusual in the Pacific Northwest, through this one came in unseasonably early. What’s always heartening to see, however, are people simply pitching in, doing what needs to be done. Be it clearing a fallen tree from a roadway or someone’s driveway, or providing a warm place to wait for the power to come back on, or simply keeping an eye on the neighborhood to make sure everyone’s doing OK, people just naturally pitch in and help.
Driving home on Sunday I noted not only how many trees and branches littered the road, but how many had already been removed from what had obviously been either blocking or dangerous locations. More than that, it was clear that this wasn’t the work of only road or power crews.
These were everyday people, pitching in where they saw the need, and had the ability.
Sounds like our kind of people.
On to your comments on our most recent stories…
Touched with Love
Actions done with love can transform people – especially when food is involved!
Cathy Gill says: Once again, this story shows that things learned from when we were children at our parents and grandparents knees were not always the truth. I grew up in such a home with my father and his sister and mother very prejudiced. As I grew up and entered the work force, I soon found out all the things my father said were very untrue. According to him, black people were worthless and only wanted welfare. There were lots of things said about other races too, but all of them were proved to be wrong. After I married and had my own children, my children were exposed to children of all races because we were a military family and you didn’t get to pick who your neighbors were or who your children would associate with. I have always been open to meeting new people and being friends with them because it matters not what color we are. We are all the same, with the same likes and dislikes, with the same worries and fears, the same concerns for the future. And each and every one of us stuck in that rut from childhood can step out of that rut and open our hearts and minds to meet new people and new friends, regardless of what color or nationality they are.
David adds: How true. Never judge a book by it’s cover as they say. It’s so surprising how when getting people of differing ethnic backgrounds together and making them interact with each other the supposed prejudice just seems to disappear…
Kel S comments: If she would have responded with anger and resentment, he would have felt that his racism was validated. By “turning the other cheek” and responding to his hate the way she did, she taught him who was really the problem without saying a word. In the current times where the news is so often about tension between races, this is a lesson for us all. We all feel emotions, we all bleed red, and we are all human beings no matter what we look like.
He Gave Us a Song
He said, “If you are going to make a mistake – make it a good one!”
Annette Naish comments: I believe any time there is a story about an adult ( parent,teacher or friend) who encourages a child, that is a good story. If anyone lets children know they are valued and have talents they have become heroic. It seems that finding good in children is not always a priority. Terrific story.
Kaye adds: This story reminds me of the high school choir I was in back in the 1950s. Our director, who was a tradition, herself, at that school, had decided to leave at the end of the year and go teach in Greenland! Just before graduation, the entire choir met at the director’s house. We stood around the walls of her living room and sang all the special choral arrangements that each year’s choir learned and performed. We sang our hearts out, because we wanted to see that look on her face when we raised the roof with that unified sound of 40 voices that we strove for. At the end of the “concert,” most of us were crying, including the director.
Riding South
A fundraising bike ride becomes a heroic gesture from a wife to her ill husband.
Ron Davis comments: Often, when there is a hero (positive), the need for a hero is someone else’s fault (negative). This story is particularly beautiful because it is all positive. I wish the best for this family.
SherryD says: What a wonderful story. It brought tears to my eyes and a gigantic lump to my throat but then I doubt anyone could read it without the same response. We hear so many negative stories that it’s so good to hear of a couple that has this kind of deep, abiding love. Thank you for publishing it.
Bob Faria adds: I love your stories and cannot keep them to myself therefore I sent them to everyone on my email list and asked them to subscribe. Its nice to read about the goodness in people.
Good Turn on Waimea Canyon Road
When a small purse flies off the hood of a car two kind travelers come to the rescue.
Tina M says: Hawaiians are awesome that way. On our last trip there, we bought a painting at an open-air market; it was too big to fit in our luggage so we had them ship it. A couple of weeks after we got home, it still hadn’t arrived, and we didn’t know how to get in touch with the seller. We tried calling a number we looked up on the net, but it was a wrong number. However, the man who answered, after hearing why we were calling, took it upon himself to track down the right number for us, and called us back with it! We were then able to contact the seller and get a tracking number (from which we found that the package was being held at our local post office, which had not informed us it was there). We picked it up the next day.
Anyway, we were absolutely amazed that some random guy who answered a wrong number was willing to go out of his way to help people all the way across the country find out what happened to their painting. Maybe living in paradise makes people friendlier? 🙂
Steve adds: I so enjoy these stories. There is so much bad news bombarding us all the time that I sometimes get cynical. These stories help me to get back in a better frame of mind. THANK YOU, Heroic Stories.
Courageous Feet
Terrible shrieks coming from the yard let us know something was wrong!
Kelly says: It’s a wonder this child was saved, David must have been very slippery and hard to grip. This method of filling in an old well is very familiar to me, and though today we would do it very differently, it was quite acceptable “back in the day”. The thing to focus on here is the resourcefulness and quick thinking of Ivy, not to mention the personal risk. I hope I could have done the same, despite an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia just thinking about it. We all have the potential to be heroes in the right circumstance.
ANNETTE NAISH comments: WOW – how fortunate to have someone who was ready, willing and able to do what it took to rescue David. What a terrific story.
Craig wonders: If this was published originally in 1999 that means David has to at least be in high school by now. I wonder if he has a “when I was a kid I almost died” story he tells his friends.
Making Time For A Teenager
A small gesture of confidence, from a successful actor to a shy high school girl, changes a life.
Kelly says: Wow, what a great thing he did for her; how I wish I had had someone like that in my life! I had a college professor who told me I would never amount to anything, and I have spent the rest of my life trying to prove him wrong. He died a long time ago, but I will never forget that moment.
Ron Davis shares this quote: “There is a great man who makes everyone feel small. But the really great man is the man who makes everyone feel great.” − G.K. Chesterton
Fay Edwards shares: A touching story I had a science teacher in high school I left school was working in a café He came in and said “can’t you do better than this “? He pushed my buttons I went on to be a ladies hairdresser for 64 years Thanks to him I was a good science student under him so he must have been interested in me To do better I have only just retired from doing hair [ part time ] I am 80.7 years old so was not too bad a hairdresser either had some clients for over 50 years I loved my work
Enjoy the rest of your Summer (or Winter, for those you below the equator 🙂 ). Remember to look for those simple signs of people just helping people and appreciate them. They’re everywhere, no matter what time of year.
Leo A. Notenboom
Publisher: https://heroicstories.org
Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place