Special Veterans Day Kindness - Kindness Yard Sale Accounting

This is a special edition of Kindness Activist just for today, Veteran’s Day. 

Veterans Day is a day to celebrate all who have served in the United States Military.  Memorial Day is for those who have served who have passed away.  Even so, I like to honor veterans on both days by going to Arlington National Cemetery, which I am fortunate enough to live very close to.

Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is a beautiful place.  The green grass.  The rows upon rows of headstones.  And, this time of year, the bright colors on the Autumn trees.

ANC is different than “home-town” cemeteries where families are buried together and loved ones live nearby and can go visit whenever they like.  Because it is an honor to be buried in ANC, many families make the decision to have their family member’s resting place there, even though it means they will not be close enough to visit the graves.  My family is buried in the Midwest and I cannot visit their graves frequently, so I feel for people who have loved ones they are missing in ANC but cannot come to pay their respects.

Because I am privileged to live so near the final place of rest for so many soldiers, I always try to share my good fortune in that regard with others.  We can drive into the cemetery because we have a special family pass, so in non-Covid times we always stop and pick up people who are walking and drive them to the grave they are looking for.  This year for Veterans Day, I asked in a Facebook group of people who live in Omaha (my hometown) if they would like me to visit a loved one for them.

I was pleased that people replied and gave me the names of their loved ones to visit.  We looked up where the gravesites were, bought flowers, pulled on rain boots for the weather, and headed to Arlington National Cemetery.

         

 I was humbled and honored to pay respects to:

            Michael Lindee, United States Marine Corps

            Henry A. Wiley, United States Navy

Kim De Cesare, United States Air Force

Thomas Tensley, United States Air Force

Christopher Parsons, United States Army

And my partner’s parents, Stanley (United States Army) and Dorothy Gaine

 

After visiting those graves we still had roses left.  I saw a man who I recognized from having driven by him earlier.  I knew he had been standing out in the rain under his umbrella visiting someone’s grave for a long time.  As I approached, I could see from his gestures that he was deep in conversation with his loved one.  I quietly approached and excused myself and asked if I might give his family member some roses.  He said yes and was very touched.  He explained that this was his father’s grave.  We had a nice chat about his father’s service and in the end, I gave the man a rose to take home, too.  He seemed like a very gentle, sweet, appreciative soul.

As I walked on, I saw a woman with 3 small children and a little puppy visiting a grave.  I approached and asked if I could give them flowers to leave.  The mother was very grateful – it turns out they were visiting her grandfather.  I had 3 roses left – one for each child to leave for their great-grandfather.

 

Like so many acts of kindness, this was a very simple gesture.  The flowers cost less than $10, but the kindness and love spread is valued at much, much more than that. 

Thank you, veterans. 

Thank you, families of veterans.

Your sacrifices and service to the country are appreciated.

 

Money used from Kindness Yard Sale funds:  $9.53

 

 

 

Statue of Kindness

Not gonna lie, I am finding it difficult to see the kindness in the world lately.  There is SO MUCH negativity, so much anger, so much destruction, so much snarkiness.  All of that can be blinding, at least for people who wear their hearts on their sleeves like me. 

So today I am writing a Kindness Activist piece in the hopes that by sitting down and putting my thoughts on "paper" I will be more able to see the KINDNESS that I know is still out there (just hiding from my view).

My cousin Brenda* is one of the kindest people on the planet and often uses her social media to spread information about causes – dogs that are missing, children that are sick, veterans that need help.  Last month she posted something about a statue being stolen from a grave site in Omaha.  And if that isn’t sad enough, it was taken from a CHILD’S GRAVE.  It hurt my heart to think about what that poor family must have thought – they showed up at the grave site for Mother’s Day to find the statue for their little boy was gone.  What kind of mean person does that??

Brayden's grave, with the sweet baseball boy statue before it was stolen

The post had a link to the story on a local news channel:  Local News Story Link

I watched the clip of the story and decided to see if there might be a way to help.  I had a photo of the statue, so I searched online to find a store that might have the same one.  It turned out that Nagel’s Landscaping in St. Paul, Minnesota had it!  I called and they said they could ship it for us.  Of course, it was not a light item to ship, so not cheap. 

Replacement located!  Now how to buy it....

I couldn’t really afford to pay for the statue and shipping myself, so I reached out to friends on social media and in a Facebook group about Kindness.  Before I knew it, we had enough to cover everything!  A complete stranger in the FB group gave a large donation (THANK YOU so much Donna!) and between 7 others we got it all covered. 

Before I could get all of that organized, someone else had gone to the cemetery and replaced the statue with a different one, not quite the same as the one that had been stolen.  Apparently, they cemented it down so that no one could take it (alas, that also means it can’t be replaced with the exact same one that used to be there…).  We decided that even though the grave site now had a new statue, the family might still be happy to get one that looked the SAME as the one that used to be there. 

Replacement ball player, arrived in Nebraska safely!

So, I called the company in Minnesota and they shipped it to my cousin in Nebraska.  She then delivered it to the family, who were overjoyed to get it.  Brenda reported that the mom and her sister cried and hugged her (which is good, as Brenda is an excellent hugger).  The word is that if I get to meet the family the next time I go to Omaha I am scheduled for a hug, too!

The new statue now lives in the family’s garden, where it is a safe and a daily reminder of their little angel. 

Facebook message from the family

This story is a good reminder, to me at least, that even when it feels like the world is full of sadness, if you look hard enough you will see a ray of kindness peeking through.

Thank you note and a photo of the beautiful baby

Be kind.  Please. 

* Here is another Kindness Activist piece featuring my cousin Brenda that I wrote early on in this project.  Like I said, she is super duper kind, and is deserving of many feature articles about her!  83 Pairs of Kindness