Tara’s kindness made the world a much better place. She always had a comforting word, a listening ear, and a smile to lift people up. We want her spirit to live on.
I live at the Jersey Shore and I usually rent my house for the summer. My cousin who is closer to the beach suffered a great deal of damage from Super storm Sandy which is probably not repairable. She moved inland for the winter. I gave her my house for the summer at no cost as she tries to figure next steps.
My son plays on a 9 year old Allstar baseball team. Last practice his coach had him and another boy pick teams for a race around the bases. Both boys picked the fastest kids first, leaving the slower boys for last. Next time, my husband told my son, pick the slowest kids first. Yesterday he did, even as the coach reminded him, “this is a competition”, while he was picking. The look in the eyes of those slower boys picked at the beginning was priceless. And would you believe, they won.
I brought lilacs to my neighbor to brighten her day.
Make A Wish Foundation of Alaska and Washington recently had a “Air Miles” fundraiser here in Alaska, requesting donations of frequent flyer miles. Granting wishes for sick children in Alaska is a little more difficult because a flight to somewhere out of the state is usually involved, and traveling out of Alaska is never cheap. I donated a bunch of miles to this good cause and was happy to hear the final number of miles raised (1.2 million!) which indicated countless other people in this state also rose to the occasion!
Post - I went to Stew Leonard’s on my lunch break to pick up one thing and as soon as I was walking away from my car this old woman signaled me to come here and so I do and she asks me to get her a shopping cart becausr she cant walk good (she had a walker in the back) and goes on about how she is 91yrs old and her husband was a test pilot and past away 14 yrs ago and her son lives in Australia and she’s all alone. And she just seemed so lonely so I continued to walk with her for a bit even after she told me I could go. I ended up getting her address from her and I plan on visiting her at her home one day and surprising her.
Today I volunteered with a bunch of friends to paint the interior of a house for Habitat for Humanity. The recipient family was there helping too and kept thanking us for the help. With so many of us involved, we got the job done super fast and it was fun!
Went to lunch with friends and the waitress was so very pleasant and seemed so happy to be there with us. We left her a 30% tip.
Paying for a family members dental work that can not afford it himself
My daughter stopped at Trader Joe’s this morning after
dropping of her son a school. She whipped through the store.
with her 20mth old daughter, Getting her most needed items. When she reached the register, there was no wallet. The
cashier insisted on paying the bill. She was remembering
how crazy her life was when she had her little ones.
My daughter will be repaying the cashierm, later, and leaving
a gift card for the cashier. Life feels good ,today, for the
both of them.
We received an email from a High School junior. He is not only a great baseball player, but also volunteers at the baseball clinics our boys attend. Coach Dale always has a smile for the kids. If they meet up with him at the ball park he is always up for a game of catch or even basketball. His dream is to play Pro ball. He was picked to participate for a very elite travel team this summer. Unfortunately, it is very expensive. He is one of 3 boys in a family struggling to get by. His email described his passion for baseball and also asked for any donation to help offset the cost of the summer team. I didn’t hesitate as I thought of what Tara would do.
