Stella Leventoyannis Harvey

Kindness Shared

No act of kindness, no matter how small is wasted.” Aesop  

Last week my father ran out of one of his medications. These things keep him alive. I understand this to my core. My dad on the other hand, takes it all in stride. What’s a few days without it? It won’t kill me. Yikes!

The homecare worker gave me no prior warning, my father no longer drives and my siblings were both travelling away for work. I wasn’t sure at this point what to do, but a problem shared is a problem solved so I called the pharmacy.

I spoke to Fawn, who knew my father by his first name. As I started to spell his last name, she said, oh you mean George. How is he doing? We haven’t seen him in awhile.

I explained the problem to her. She told me she could fill the prescription, but that they no longer had a delivery service to deliver medication to patients. As I tried to figure out what to do next, she suggested she could call a taxi.

Okay, I said, can I pay for that on the phone or can you charge it to the bill.

No, she said, they require payment right away.

Will they take my visa over the phone? I wondered out loud.

Don’t worry, she said, I would pay for it.

But how will I pay you back?

Don’t worry. I’ll cover it. Your dad’s house is not too far away.

No, there must be another way.

She convinced me that this was not a problem. She was happy to help.

A little while later, she called again to tell me that a cab driver had just picked up my dad’s prescription and was on his way. Before I could thank her for her generosity she said, and you’ll never guess what happened.

Apparently the cab driver was a patient of the pharmacy and specifically had dealt with Fawn. When he picked up my dad’s prescription, the driver told her that she’d helped him so many times he couldn’t take any money from her. He’d deliver the medicine for no charge. It wasn’t that far away anyway.

A kindness shared begets another and another. Perhaps in this world of turmoil, this is what we should all remember.

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