The Reason for a Random Act of Kindness

For more than 25 years my late husband and I celebrated our birthdays together. Our birthdays were 6 years and 1 day apart. We started celebrating our birthdays the morning of his birthday and stopped celebrating our birthdays the evening of my birthday. I always teased him and told him that God made our birthdays one day apart so that he would never forget my birthday.

Our birthday was always an experience. For many years we planned vacations around our birthday. The location varied from year to year. We celebrated at Disney in Florida, whitewater rafting in Tennessee and even at the very 1st Hard Rock Café in London. We loved celebrating our birthdays together.

When Michael died my whole world was turned upside down. I went through all of the emotions and the fear of how to keep going without him. It was now up to me to keep the car running, the house standing and to keep the child alive. At times these thoughts could be overwhelming.

I dreaded my 1st birthday without Michael. For the past 25 years we celebrated this together, now for the 1st time in a long time, I am on my own. I had to come up with a way that I could celebrate Michael's birthday and ensure that I could get through that day.

Michael was the person that always walked around with $100.00 bill in his pocket just in case someone needed it. He loved nothing more than giving to people for the pure joy of giving.

As I sat with my friend Lynn, I came up with an idea that would keep me occupied and celebrate Michael and the person that he was. I decided to use his day to bless others to celebrate him. We had cards made up that allowed us to share who Michael was and the reason for the blessing that they were receiving.

March 6th, 2021 Michael would have been 60 years old. This was the 4th year that we celebrated his life by committing random acts of kindness. We spent the day blessing people with small tokens to re-assure them that there is still kindness in the world.

We wanted to focus our giving this year on the essential workers that worked through the Covid-19 pandemic. We were able to bless firefighters, correctional officers, obstetric nurses, oncology nurses, pharmacists, bank tellers and even the front-line workers at McDonalds. What a great day making smiles happen.

In my mind, Michael was \the epitome of kindness and selflessness. I hope that the recipients of our random act of kindness get a small glimpse into the amazing man that he was.