【推荐2】The Importance of a Child’s Gift

On the first day of fourth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Brown, told my class a story about her husband Rob, who is a brain cancer survivor. She talked about their journey through his treatment and recovery. After what Mrs. Brown experienced with Rob’s illness, she decided to devote part of her life to helping people in similar situations. She told us about a local organization she was a part of called Be Head Strong (BHS), which works to support and comfort families with a member suffering from brain cancer. Her strength and attitude toward her situation inspired me and led me to realize some significant lessons about love and hope.

One day, when I was looking at the money that I had saved, I thought about the stories Mrs. Brown had told us, about Rob and all the other remarkable people she worked with through BHS. I decided that was where I wanted my money to go.

As the last day of school approached, I wrapped the heart-shaped box full of dollars and coins. After all the other kids had left on the last day of school, I handed Mrs. Brown the present. As she opened it, I told her that I wanted the money to go to BHS to help people like Rob. She broke into tears and hugged me tightly.

I was invited to BHS’s annual fundraiser and auction. The night’s theme was hope and giving. The auctioneer told everyone the story of my gift to Mrs. Brown, the $131.30. At the end, he asked, “How many of you are willing to do what a fourth grade girl did and donate $131.30?” At that point nearly everyone in the room raised their bidding numbers. At that moment I realized that the money I had donated had become something bigger than that.

Inspired by Mrs. Brown, I continued my fundraising through the years, starting fundraisers and helping with BHS events. The joy that I found in this organization never came from any recognition that I received for my action. I gained belief and hope from the people that I met and worked with in BHS. These events and experiences have shown me what love can bring in bad situations. I want to spend much of my life volunteering.

People may not always realize how big of an impact one kind gesture can make. Mrs. Brown sparked a decision in my life that has changed how I live.

【推荐3】One day I was waiting to board a bus in the capital of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. It was 7 p.m.; night was falling fast. A young girl, about 16 years old, approached me and asked if I could help her. She had travelled by herself from her boarding school and now she needed to get home to Kepong, north of KL. This happened before cellphones appeared.

After listening to her story, I lent her 20 dollars at once and told her to take a taxi straight to her home. She was much obliged and suggested getting my details so that she would repay me. I gave her my name and my address and then I left to catch my bus home.

When I related this experience to my roommate, Mike, he made fun of my getting foolish. He said, “Don’t you know? This is the oldest trick! I bet she is having a good laugh at your expense. Tut-tut! What do I care? You just lost your money.” “Oh, well, you weren’t there to see her desperation (绝望).” “Well, of course, she looked desperate. She had probably acted desperate many times before she met you.” And he didn’t stop teasing me the following days.

However, one week later, Mike handed me a letter. It was addressed to me, but on the other side of the envelope (信封), the neat writing was the young girl’s name with hearts and bows at the last line. I tore it open and read it immediately. The girl wrote me a nice letter, thanking me sincerely. And she told me that I would receive a money order three days later. Really I did. By the way, when my roommate knew the matter, the look on his face was really worth seeing.

【推荐1】My mom could be quite a handful, which I have come to see as a blessing as the years have gone by but did not always appreciate when she was alive, especially after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The news came as no surprise to us kids, of course. We’d seen our tough, sharp-witted mom change. But Mom was not about to take Alzheimer’s lying down. “There’s nothing wrong with me!” she insisted, even after she sideswiped a cop, denied doing it and then blamed it all on him.

Eventually my brother and his wife moved Mom to a sweet little house on the property next to theirs so they could keep an eye on her. They built a lighted path between the two houses so Mom could visit when she wanted, which occasionally happened at 5:00 a.m. when she thought it was 5:00 p.m. At Christmas, my sister-in-law, Toni, would hang Christmas lights along the way.

One thing we couldn’t do was make her eat properly, especially after she nearly burned the house down making tuna (金枪鱼) salad. So we arranged for a senior meals-on-wheels program to deliver her meals. At first she wouldn’t let them in the house. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “I know how to eat!” Then she offered to help them deliver meals to “people who really need them”.

Eventually she relented — except that she would simply keep all the meals in the fridge, untouched, in case she happened to have hungry visitors. When we told the volunteers this, they were wonderfully wise and pretty soon they got Mom to eat. She even admitted that the food was “pretty good, considering”. We’re convinced the good nutrition helped keep her in her home a little longer before she had to enter a care facility.

So how proud am I that our friends at Volunteers of America, which operates meals-on-wheels programs for the elderly all over the country? Very proud. It was angels, after all, who were able to get my mother to eat.

【推荐2】Saving a drowning woman is all in a day’s work for two boys who had already collected their swimming and lifesaving merit badges (奖章).

A June heavy storm hit Columbia in Missouri with little warning, causing floodwaters from rivers to burst their banks and overflow zones to turn into ponds.

When 15-year-old Dominic Viet and 16-year-old Joseph Diener passed a basketball court that had turned into a pool, they heard the frantic shouting of a young woman desperately trying to keep her head above water under the force of a current (水流). The boys had seen the woman swimming with a friend there before, but it was now obvious that she was drowning.

“The first thing that came into my mind was to get into the water,” Dominic recalled. “We didn’t have time to think. Her head was barely above the water and we could see her sinking more down every second. We didn’t think about the risks. We had to get her out.”

Heroes will do as heroes do, and pulling her up onto their shoulders, Dominic and Joseph got her ashore, where emergency services arriving at someone else’s call performed first aid and rushed her to the hospital.

The fire department honored the two boys with a “Citizen Life Safety Award”. Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Jenkins described the boys’ act as heroic and courageous. He added, “Floodwaters are no conditions to be swimming in. There can be waste water runoff, loose chemicals, downed power lines charging the current with electricity, or pieces of wood, metal, or brick, etc.”