Page 63 - 8 - Những Tâm Hồn Cao Thượng

Time passed slowly for a little girl growing up in the hills of southern Missouri in the early
1930s. As I grew older, I helped prepare the food that was taken by wagon to families who had come
home to escape the paralyzing hardship of the Depression. I even met the “giant” who had come to our
door that cold winter day. He was the father of the girl who was to become “my very best friend.”

Even after we grew up and left the mountains to make our lives in the city, we corresponded and often
met at family reunions in the Ozarks.

My mother was right. On my fifth birthday I received the most important birthday present ever.
I’ve never for gotten the kindness and generosity of the simple but pro found people who believed that
they were indeed their brother’s keeper.

Mother’s prayer has also been answered - many times. For the past six decades, no matter where
or how I cele -brate each December 4, my birthday theme has been that act of kindness I witnessed on
my fifth birthday. It has truly been a birthday remembered.

- Elizabeth Leopard

A best way to repay a kindness shown is to pass it on.

- Martha Kinney