People use the proverb “seeing is believing” to describe situations where it’s hard to believe something is possible if you haven’t seen it happen. I am here today to tell you that the proverb is true and to share with you how a girl and her grandmother made a positive transformation in a community.

It was a year ago when I was studying life cycles in my science class. I wrote a paper about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly (帝王蝶) and received a perfect score. I was so thrilled; I called my grandmother Nana and told her the exciting news. My talk recalled memories from Nana’s childhood. “I remember when I was a girl,” she said, “those orange and black butterflies were a common sight. Come late summer, there would suddenly be hundreds of them, and before long there were so many it felt like you were standing in an orange cloud.”

“It sounds like you witnessed a migration (迁徙), but what happened to them?” I asked. “To be honest, I’ve never known,” Nana admitted. “But there do seem to be fewer monarchs around the neighborhood.” Nana and I decided to investigate.

That weekend, we met at the public library. Our research produced plenty of information: some fascinating and some concerning. Apparently, the number of monarchs has been in decline for the last several decades. Housing developments have destroyed much of their habitat (栖息地). Some information was hopeful, though, like how conservationists are working to save them.

The best was this — it doesn’t take lots of money or equipment to do so. It takes only a little bit of land, some seeds, and dedicated people to create what’s called a Monarch Waystation (驿站).

“What if we set up our own Monarch Waystation?” I suggested. “We’ll need people to help.” Nana responded immediately and didn’t waste time to get started.

The next day, Nana presented the idea to her garden club and I talked to my friends.

Nana and I created a blog and frequently updated about the community’s efforts.

You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. How many times have we said “Oh, I’ll do that tomorrow.”? Sometimes tomorrow never comes, and we find ourselves saying, “Boy, I wish I hadn’t put that off.”

I’m the mother of three children and grandmother of two. My oldest son Todd was killed instantly in a car accident when he was 16. It was shortly after Todd’s death that I entered into a personal relationship with Betty. From that day on, my life has taken a radical change for the better. Our family has been friends with Betty for many years. Over the years, we shared phone calls and birthday cards. Betty sent our youngest son Brandon a birthday card with $5 in it until he graduated from high school.

Shortly after Betty’s birthday, I called to see how she was and what she had done on her birthday. I was pretty surprised when Betty didn’t answer the phone；instead, her daughter Carol did. Carol told me that her mom had gone downhill fast, and she was now in Hospice care. Carol handed the phone to Betty. I talked briefly to her and let her know we loved her.

As soon as I got off the phone, I sent a text to Brandon to let him know Betty wasn’t doing well. Little did I know that Brandon stopped what he was doing and immediately sent flowers to Betty.

You can imagine how proud I was of Brandon when Carol called the next day, letting me know how much Betty loved the flowers Brandon had sent. A few days later, Betty died.

I sat quietly on the sofa, feeling heavy.

I hurried to clean up the house and welcome Carol.

83-year-old Agatha Stones was a woman who had given birth to four kids. When these kids grew up, they all moved away from home to start their own lives.

All of Agatha’s kids had become mostly interested in material things but ignored the importance of family. “Business has been a lot, mom,” the eldest, Brian, would say. Sally, John and Mary were in their late 30s and had yet to settle down. It hurt Agatha that none of her four kids remembered to visit her or even call her.

One day, she was complaining about it to her friend Sharon. “I just don’t understand why these kids don’t want to return home to spend time with me,” she said.

“Is that what is eating you?” her friend asked.

“Yes, it is,” Agatha said. “My lawyer has asked me to write my will (遗嘱). I have no idea how I’ll share the little I have among all four of my kids.”

“I know what you can do to determine that,” Sharon proudly said. And then, she offered Agatha a shocking plan.

A couple of days later, a piece of news came: Agatha suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. Despite that, none of her four kids visited her. A few more days later, all four children received a message stating that their mom had passed away. Within hours, they all arrived home to discuss how they would share the inheritance (遗产).

Suddenly, a voice cut through the discussion. “Will you guys give all that a rest and focus on what has brought us all together? The death of our mother!” the youngest daughter, Mary, shouted. There was a brief pause at her outburst, but as soon as the silence was broken by a phone buzzing, they went on.

Unknown to them, Sharon was listening in on their conversation and, after a few minutes, she walked into the room, and told them to enter another room to say their final goodbyes to their mother.

When Brian entered the room, he was terribly shocked.

“But I believe in you all, so I hope that this has taught you a lesson,” she continued.