KINDNESS

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school found he had only one penny left, and he was hungry. He decided to ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked her for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” ‘’You don’t owe me anything” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for kindness.”  He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

As Howard Kelly left that house he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and people was stronger also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Years later that same woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized  her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do the best to save her life. From that day he gave her special attention to the case. After a long struggle, the battle was won.

Dr Kelly asked the hospital to pass  the patient’s bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words: “Paid in full with one glass of milk.”  (signed) Dr Howard Kelly.

“I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.”       William Penn

(From the book  “ Bucket of Surprises’’ Compiled by J.John & Mark Stibbe)