Kindness takes a seat
Oct 17, 2017, 7:45 AM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 10:30 am
(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Since starting my Daily Dose of Kindness segments on Seattle’s Morning News I’ve been accused of ruining makeup and making truckers cry. You’re welcome.
I cry most mornings, too. It’s a good cry. The kind of cry that comes from witnessing the best of humanity. There’s a whole lot of that in Plymouth, Minnesota.
KARE11’s Boyd Huppert, whose stories almost always make me cry, tells the story of 95-year-old Harvey Djerf. He takes two walks every day through his neighborhood with the help of two walking sticks. Along the way he finds breadcrumbs of kindness – chairs put out by his neighbors specifically for him.
“It’s kind of a status symbol in the neighborhood to have a chair out for Harvey,” one neighbor said.
“I’ll just peak out the window, ‘Harvey is in the chair!'” another neighbor exclaimed.
Harvey sits for a few minutes in each chair to catch his breath. Sometimes neighbors pop out to visit. Some bring him cookies. It’s a welcome sight for Harvey because, according to KARE11, he’s alone right now due his wife recovering from a stroke in a nursing home.
“Maybe other neighbors will be encouraged to do things like my neighbors have done for me,” Harvey says.
You can hear Colleen O’Brien’s “Daily Dose of Kindness” segment every morning at 7:30 a.m. on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM
