An Act Of Kindness,Alan Magill

Sara, in her mid-90s and living in an assisted living home in New York, gains joy when hearing from her son, her only child.

Hearing that her son had e-mailed her from Israel, Sara was expecting a printout of the e-mail. But Robert, the home's recreation director who was assigned by the home's administrator to give her the e-mail he had printed out for her, couldn't find it when he planned to give it to her. Unfortunately he couldn't print out another copy, as the e-mail was already deleted.

Robert knew that he had to tell Sara that he had lost her son's e-mail. He reviewed in his mind how he would break the news to her.

But Robert wasn't prepared for Sara's reaction when he told her about the lost e-mail. He would have understood any number of reactions, including expressions of hurt, frustration and even anger. But Sara, in a calm tone, said, "It doesn't matter. I'm going to see him soon anyway. Don't worry about it."

Robert was so appreciative of Sara's gracious reaction. He immediately went from feeling very bad to admiring Sara for what she had said and how she had said it.

Calm, and at peace with himself, Robert went back to his office and thought to himself, "She is such a nice woman. Let me try again to find that e-mail for her."

To be sure, if Sara had yelled at him and demanded that he look again for the correspondence, he probably would have done so. But he would not have been relaxed, and in fact might have been so flummoxed that his detective skills may have been compromised. With a clear mind, though, he was able to sit at his desk and concentrate clearly on what he had been doing right after he had received the e-mail from the administrator.

Robert remembered that when he had the copy of the e-mail in his hand, he was working on that week's schedules. After finishing that task, he put the schedules in a folder that was underneath other folders and to his left.

He felt a sublime joy upon seeing the e-mail from Sara's son in the "Schedules" file.

With an enthusiastic gait, he walked over to Sara with the good news that he found the e-mail.

What Sara said next spoke volumes about her integrity and her deep desire not to hurt another person's feelings. "Oh, thank you so much!" she gushed. "This means so much to me. I wanted to hear what he has to say." That was the truth, as the e-mail indeed meant a lot to her. After all, it was a communication from her only child who was 7,000 miles away.

But Sara had been in touch with a greater truth when she calmed Robert after learning that the e-mail was lost. Why cause pain on someone who hadn't intentionally wronged her? With enough pain in this world, why add to it?

Robert handed Sara the e-mail, and she read it with a big smile on her face. And why not smile? Now she was not only connected to her dear son, she was also connected to how Hashem wants us to treat others.

The names in this column have been changed to protect the individuals' privacy.

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