Random Acts of Kindness

I was driving along Clarendon Street in South Melbourne on my way to Castlemaine to visit my parents. As I stopped at a traffic light, I noticed a man lying on a bench seat on the footpath beside the road. It was early evening and his rough appearance and the fact that he was holding a bottle wrapped in newspaper confirmed my immediate suspicions — he was a drunk.

As soon as I saw him, I felt a strong feeling of sympathy for him. But like so many other people, I had other places to be and other things to do. As I watched, I saw two policemen approach and instantly I felt relieved. After all, it was their responsibility to clean up the streets and make sure men like him got a chance to be somewhere safe for the night. As I sat waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The two police walked around and when they reached the man, both of whom turned their heads the other way, as if not to see, and walked right past. Suddenly, a firm belief streamed through my mind, “Life is never so busy that there is no time to serve.”

Right then I looked up and the traffic lights turned green — and I had a decision to make. I knew that if I drove off, I would have no peace, so I turned left, drove around the block, parked the car and walked back to the man. As I approached him, I felt completely unconfident to deal with the situation and even a little foolish. What was I going to say? What was I going to do? At the very least I could drive him home — if he had a home. I found him sleeping soundly and at first, he didn’t respond to me at all, so I reached out and gently shook him awake.

He woke up, staring at me angrily.

Much to my relief, the man agreed to get into my car.

My baby Reese started screaming as we watched my eight-year-old kick and hit while he was tested for his longing-for black belt. I struggled to hold him in my arms as we pushed our way through the crowd to the side of the taekwondo (跆拳道) studio.

I looked up, and that’s when I saw it. There was a woman on a flyer with a bright white smile surrounded by her daughters. “OUR MOM NEEDS A KIDNEY (肾脏),” it said above the photo. “My name is Vonchelle Knight, and I have kidney disease. I am a single mother of two girls and have been on the transplant waitlist for eight years,” it said below.

As I continued to read, I was attracted. My eyes couldn’t get to the next word fast enough. My eyes were filled with tears as I thought about how desperately this mother needed a kidney. And that’s when I felt deep in my gut, “It’s me. I’m going to be her donor.” In the middle of that busy taekwondo studio, I was called on to donate my kidney to a woman whom I had never met.

The drive home was not a typical Saturday kind of drive home. I trembled at the thought of speaking aloud what I was so convinced of just moments before. I glanced over at my husband who was driving.

“Hey, babe?” I asked nervously. “I need to tell you something.”

He looked at me, unsure and a little afraid of what might come out of my mouth next. After all, I do like to keep him on his toes. “Yeah, what is it?” he asked intently.

“I think I want to donate my kidney to a stranger.”

I thought he might drive right off the road. By the look on his face, he clearly thought I had lost my mind, I was a busy mom of two boys, working a full-time job as a sales account manage.

There is a farm not far from the coastline. It belongs to a man called Tom. Tom couldn’t do everything by himself on the farm. Thus, he needed to hire one man to help him run the farm. However, no one worked on his farm for long. Why？Because the work was too tiring. Since the farm is near the sea, there are often storms from the sea that strike his farm. When a storm comes, Tom and the man he hired have to get up quickly and try to reduce the losses caused by the storm. Therefore, no one liked working there. Tom had to look for people to work for him all the time.

One day, a man called Henry read the poster that Tom had put up and then came to his farm.

“Sir, I can work for you ,” said Henry.

Tom looked at Henry. This young man was neither strong nor tall.

“Are you sure?”asked Tom.

“Yes, sir. I can do the work well. But you must pay me twice what you paid others before,” said that young man.

Tom was surprised. He didn’t really believe such a man could do the work well. But it was really hard for him to find someone else to work for him. At last, he decided to give Henry a try. However, before hiring him, he said, “Can you really be a good helper？The work on the farm is hard and tiring. And there are often storms.”

Henry smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I can be a good helper. You’ll see. And storms won’t be a problem. They won’t even disturb our sleep. We can sleep very well even on stormy nights.”

And then Henry stayed on the farm. To Tom’s joy, Henry worked hard and did his work well. It was obvious that he hadn’t lied.

However, one night, there was a big storm. Tom was woken up by the strong wind. He was worried that the storm would cause great losses for his farm. And he saw his helper nowhere.

Tom thought Henry must still be sleeping.

Tom thought he had hired the wrong man.