I work in a nursing home and my job is to take care of the elderly.

This year,a very sweet old lady that I cared for,Alice,had gone through a difficult time.She got dementia and so she had been in the hospital twice.In November I was finally able to get her back to her “home”.

Alice had thought her daughter was coming to visit her on Christmas Day and that they were going to have the whole family together like the old days.When she finally realized that that happy moment was not going to happen,she was very sad.Knowing that her daughter was coming after Christmas was not enough to make her feel happy.I hated the idea of her being alone on the holiday!

On Christmas Eve,I gave her a surprise by asking if she would like to go to a candlelight service at church that night.

Instead of taking her to my church,I took her to her old neighborhood church where all her friends were.We got there early and I got her a seat where her friends could see her as they came in.Then soon some of her friends came to the church and they rushed over to greet her and sit with her.

The candlelight service was beautiful and Alice got a lot of love from her old and new friends there.

The truth of the story is that I am the one who got the best gift:the smile on Alice’s face.

It was late, about 10:15 p.m. Janice Esposito got off the train at Bellport, New York, went to her car and started driving home. She was so familiar with the route that she almost drove automatically: turned left to the Station Road, then another left onto Montauk Highway, and then—bam! When Esposito’s car had just crossed the railroad tracks, it hit another vehicle and was pushed back onto the tracks. Injured but mostly shocked by the crash and by the airbags that popped up, she was stuck in the vehicle.

As it happened, Pete DiPinto was just about to go to sleep when he heard a sharp noise and saw the accident not far outside his bedroom window. As a volunteer firefighter and retired teacher, DiPinto, who was 65，fetched a flashlight and rushed out without hesitation. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said. “We’re always on duty.”

At first, he spotted the other car in the accident. After making sure that the driver was all right, DiPinto looked around and discovered Esposito’s car straddling the railway tracks. And then he heard the bell ring, which signaled a train’s arrival.

DiPinto rushed to Esposito’s car and broke the window on the driver’s side. Esposito looked up at him, with her eyes glazing over. “I don’t know where I am,” she said.

“You’re on the railroad tracks，”DiPinto yelled. “I have to get you off right now! The train was running toward them at a speed of some 105 kilometers per hour. The driver’s door fail to be opened due to the collision(碰撞), so DiPinto quickly run to the other side and was able to open the door. He put the airbags aside, seized her arms, pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until finally got her out and walked her to safety as swiftly as possible. Several seconds later, the train crashed into the vehicle. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day.

“Last night,” said Gregory Miglino Jr., Chief of the Department in South Country Ambulance, “the hero arrived in pajamas(睡衣裤), not in a fire truck.”

Brian Snow, who is a Canadian, had a special Christmas. He gave up hours of holiday fun with his family to help 75 trapped strangers.

High winds changed an airline on Dec. 25, a flight intended for St.John’s, Newfoundland.And the passengers finally arrived in as far as Deer Lake on the other side of the island province.

Local resident Brian Snow was friends with one of the passengers. And he realized that due to the national holiday, all the restaurants and shops in town were closed.On top of that, the hotel where almost 80 people had been dropped off had no restaurant. Mr Snow posted a call to action on social media: “Let’s show the true Christmas spirit.”

Within an hour, the post was shared 60 times and the community had voluntarily organized a delightful meal in the hotel lobby. Residents brought sandwiches, their own turkey dinner leftovers, freshly baked bread, and, of course, lots of cookies and desserts.

However, the kindness from the Deer Lake community didn’t end at the dinner table. Dave Power, a passenger who was flying with his wife to be with family in St. John’s, said, “When we finished eating, my wife and I got our bags and came out to the front of the hotel to find a long line of cars.” Thanks to them, each passenger came back to the airport smoothly. “It was truly a ‘Come From Away Christmas’, ”said Dave’s brother Robert Power on the post.

This selfless devotion reminds us of a quite analogous story that happened in 2001, when townspeople came together to welcome thousands of passengers on planes because of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. The Tony Award­winning musical Come From Away got inspiration from the kindness of these people.   It details the efforts of community members who took care of the thousands of travellers for several days.