Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 17, 1994 TAG: 9402090220
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Kathleen Wilson
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It turned up in the mail. Without a return address. Without a note.
Without a thing missing from inside.
\ Just a few days after moving to Manhattan, I opened my mailbox on my birthday and found nothing.
No bills. No cards. No junk mail. No nothing.
Since my name wasn't on the mailbox, my mail had been returned to sender, someone at the New York City Post Office told me.
On my way to work the next morning, I pasted my name on the mailbox.
When I came home I opened it to find one card.
It read: "Happy birthday. Love, your mailman."
\ I needed a quarter to make a phone call at the Roanoke City Courthouse. The clerk wouldn't give me change for a dollar.
As she was directing me to the vending machines on the bottom floor, a man in a suit walked up and handed me a quarter. I offered him the dollar. He wouldn't take it. I asked his name. He wouldn't give it.
No big deal, he said.
\ The man behind me in the checkout line at the Lakeside Kroger asked if I was buying the flowers I had in my hand for myself. I wasn't; they were for a friend.
That was nice, he said, but also a shame.
If they'd been for me, he said he would have liked to have treated me.
\ For the next coupel of weeks, open your eyes to the good in people.
Did a driver give you a smile and wave you into traffic rather than revving up and passing you?
Did your garbage collector walk your empty can back up the driveway for you because of the snow?
Did you actually notice someone who doesn't work for the supermarket gathering up wayward carts and walking them back to the store?.
Call/send us your stories of good Samaritans or "angels" and the acts of kindness they perform. We'll thank them for you in an upcoming feature.
Kindness is contagious. Perhaps yo'll recognize yourself being thanked as well.
Write to Kindness Revolution, in care of the features department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P. O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491. Or fax your information to us at 981-3318. If you'd like to leave a voice-mail message, call 981-3232. The deadline is Feb. 4 at 5 p.m.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***