Kindness and a Good Man Remembered

“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

~ William Wordsworth

This is definitely the time of year for memories and nostalgia, but I was surprised at the kindness I recently remembered.  I was backing up into my parking space and, as always, trying to make sure I did not hit the wall of my parking space.  I guess it was the time of year as well as what I was doing that made me remember a kindness that my stepfather had done for my mother many years ago.  They lived in a house with a small garage and, each evening as she came home from work, my mother would carefully ease her car into the garage.  She needed to get the car in far enough that the garage door would close, but not so far in that she would hit the washer and dryer that were right in front of the car.  Each night, my stepfather would stand at the garage door and guide her in.  He finally came up with an ingenious solution.  He hung a tennis ball on a string to the ceiling of the garage.  He measured it, so that it would fall exactly where my mother’s windshield should line up, so that her car both fit in the garage and missed banging into the washer and dryer.  A small kindness, but very typical of my stepfather, a gentle and kind man we all loved, who died nearly 16 years ago.  I know that he would be surprised that I still remember the hanging tennis ball.  But sometimes – in fact, so many times, it’s those small kindnesses that make life easier for others.  And we remember.