Loving wonderfulness (any denom)

[samira_catlover]

OK, many of us have dealt with the Holier Than Thou Crowd.  But can we make a space for recognizing ALL kinds of wonderful people who have done lovely, compassionate things for folks in crisis, and never mind their particular mindsets?

For my part: I remember a horrible day, when Mom and I were in the hospital waiting room, and the ENT specialist who was doing the surgery came out and said "I THINK I got out all the cancer. We will need to do radiation, and then see..."

We went home, severely shell-shocked.

An hour later, after we got home, the doorbell rang.  There was one of the kids from the duplex across the street. Carol worked in a nursing home (and she could COOK like crazy); her husband was a truck driver. Not a whole lot of worldly goods there. But they were our neighbors, and they knew we were scared and upset, and barely functional....

He had a big chunk of homemade meatloaf, with gravy. Also a casserole of scalloped potatoes, with cheese, yet!  And some cauliflower, tenderly cooked up, with tomato topping. And a nice whack of homemade Bundt cake.

Mom and I sat in the living room and then had a *really* good cry. Afterwards, after the crying, we sat down to a wonderful meal, cooked with lots of love.

That was in the early 1980s. STILL, I remember so gracious and kindly and caring a gift---and will do so until the day I die and give back my spirit.

What stories can you all share, of time, of resources, a listening ear, of "of course, I'll watch the kids, or run errands", or whatever? Stuff given because love, and never mind church or deity or agendas?

 

[LadyCrow1313]

A few years ago, my aunt had a quadruple bypass around Thanksgiving. Needless to say, this threw the family into a bit of turmoil. Instead of all of us being gathered @ my mother's house, we were fairly scattered (but still close by).

Out of the blue, one of my mother's friends brought us a complete Thanksgiving dinner. This was a complete surprise to us, as we certainly didn't expect any sort of gesture from anyone.

I remarked to my mother that while I was appreciative & more than grateful that someone thought of our family during this difficult time, it was just an odd thing (to me, @ least). Maybe because I'm skeptical/not overly trusting of people that I don't personally know, perhaps? 

:: shrugs ::

(on a happy side note, my aunt recovered just fine from her surgery)

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

Mine isn't about actions as much as it is about words and attitudes. My oldest sibling came out as agendered last summer. When sib told all the people at sib's church, they were all very loving and supportive. Sib was almost suicidal before coming out and has started making a lot of progress on their mental health with everyone's love and acceptance. (I'm still working on using "they" as my sibling's preferred pronoun. I will get the hang of it. I will!)