When I want to find the popular opinion of something I often turn to the internet with a quick search to give me some clues. Recently, I wanted to find out the internet’s opinion on the generosity of others. A quick search lead me to articles with headlines like “Woman gets her dream wedding thanks to the generosity of strangers,” “Family who lost everything in house fire, overwhelmed by generosity of strangers,” and “Community joins together with generous donations during food drive”. A part of me wasn’t surprised to see that these acts of kindness were in the news. After all, when I think of generosity, I think of grand gestures like these and all of the similar stories that make the internet, and myself, explode with happy emotions.
Generosity isn’t just defined by community efforts though. Individuals themselves feel happy when they give generously, but they don’t always understand the impact it has on the families they are helping. Some may feel that because they are an individual that they will not make a big impact. I can tell you from personal experience that is not true. My family has been on the receiving end of some of these acts. I wanted to share my story and how the generosity of others has touched my family.
I may forget the time I paid for somebodies coffee in the drive-thru, or donated clothing to a family who had lost things in a fire, but I will not forget the feeling when others gave so generously to my family.
I have a son with extensive medical needs. As he has gotten older he has outgrown many of his challenges, but there was a time when we were going through some financial struggles and the cost of a monthly medicine – five thousand dollars per month – was not covered by insurance. Our community pulled together, created fundraisers, and helped raise the money that we needed to cover the medicine for the entire season he was on it.
Many people donated their time and talents to help our family during that time. We have kept in touch with some of those people and remain good friends to this day. Their generosity touched my family. Without their support, my son could have faced fatal consequences. A big stress was lifted off of me knowing that his medicine was covered.
Another time happened around Christmas when we received an anonymous card in the mail addressed to my son with a gift card containing enough money to purchase gifts for him and his siblings.
Then, while eating lunch one day, we struck up a conversation with our waitress. She was in town for school, but happened to work at Disney World in her home town. It lead to us telling her about our Disney experience when we went on a Make a Wish trip. When we received the ticket with a note saying that our story touched her and our bill had been taken care of I was moved. I had never had somebody pay for my meal before, but the generosity of our waitress has stayed with me and to this day I carry the note in my wallet to remind me of that day.
And yet another occurred one day prior to my son’s birthday a few years ago. As I was putting my son in the car, a gentleman approached me with what appeared to be a receipt rolled up and asked if my son would like it. Though I thought it was strange for him to offer his receipt, I said “Sure!” and allowed my son to take it. As the man walked away my son noticed that the receipt had a dollar in it. He was so happy. Upon closer examination once we reached our next destination I noticed that it wasn’t just a dollar; the receipt contained a one hundred dollar bill. This man had no clue that it was my son’s birthday the next day, but he made his day extra special.
I know how random acts of kindness can make a family feel so I try to do my part to help spread that kindness to others and my children are learning to share generously too. My son often wants to pay for the vehicle behind us in the drive-thru. Like many of the people that have donated to my family in one way or another, I often do not ever see these people again, but I can only pray that they will pay it forward.
Courtney is a freelance writer, and editor living in the heart of Arkansas. She blogs about her faith, homeschooling, and raising special needs children as a single mother. When she is not blogging, you can find her advocating for people with disabilities, enjoying true crime documentaries, and trying to find downtime. You can find Courtney on her blog http://lifeasaconvert.com or on twitter @LifeAsAConvert.