SLO County residents share stories of strangers’ acts of kindness: ‘It made our day’
These are unsettling, uncertain times — rife with war, refugees, the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, toxic politics and blatant meanness.
It hurts when we can’t really do anything to help.
Then I read about the innate decency and random kindness and generosity of some people. It reminds me that, as much bad as there is in the world, there is so much more that’s good.
Acts of unexpected kindness
I polled some friends online, in person and by phone about their memories of acts of unexpected kindness.
Sometimes, the acts involve simple acknowledgment — as when a young man at a nearby table saluted Bruce Marchese of Cambria, who was wearing his U.S. Marines cap.
Marchese returned the salute and the boy “placed his hand over his heart and bowed his head,” companion Ann Pope said. “It made our day.”
Some kind souls pour their own gasoline into the empty tank of a stranded motorist and then follow them to the nearest service station, making sure they arrived safely. Janice Peters of Morro Bay said that happened to her on the long, lonely freeway run from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
Bill and Sandy Raver of Morro Bay say they’ll be forever grateful to a young information desk employee in Paris who left her post to dash up and down stairs and through corridors, pushing to the head of a long line to make sure the Ravers got the tickets that the auto-print kiosk wouldn’t print.
The woman then grabbed the couples’ luggage and rushed them onto their Avignon-bound train, mere moments before it pulled out of the station.
There’s the concept of paying it forward — exemplified by passing on a kind act or thoughtful gesture you received, or buying a meal for a military member, first responder or nurse. Joe Alford of Pahrump, Nevada, and Paul Downing of Arizona, were recent recipients of the latter.
There’s also paying it across, such as quietly shelling out money for a meal being enjoyed by people celebrating at a nearby table. Guy Sother, owner of The Café on Bridge Street, did that recently for Darlene and Ron Wadsworth’s recent anniversary dinner at a different restaurant.
There’s even paying it backward, as Elaine Beckham of Los Osos experienced when the stranger ahead of her in the Starbuck’s drive-through line paid for Beckham’s coffee.
SLO County residents aided by medical Good Samaritans
San Luis Obispo County residents lavish so many helpful gestures and donations on people going through medical crises, treatments and long convalescences.
Sue Robinson of Cambria wrote that she’s super anxious to recover enough to start paying forward all the “unexpected acts of kindness” she’s received, more “than I can mention. “We are just surrounded by kind, giving people,” she wrote.
Michele Sherman of Cambria is recovering from “a complicated case of pneumonia,” she wrote. After a beach walk, she struggled to climb steep steps back to her car, and sat on one to catch her breath.
“A young tyke about 5 years old came bounding up the stairs ahead of his mom,” Sherman recalled. “He obviously saw that I was in trouble and he sweetly asked, ‘Do you need me to hold your hand?’ ”
“His gesture was so earnest,” she said, “it truly melted my heart. I am going to hold onto that special memory for a long time.”
Cambria violinist gets help from seniors
Then there are the examples of poignant group kindnesses, such as people who donate to help others suffering through various crises or who rise to an occasion en masse in a shared wave of compassion.
In mid-July, violinist Brynn Albanese of Cambria performed for residents at The Palms, one of two independent living communities operated by The Villages of San Luis Obispo.
Because of a sore knee, Albanese wrote, she sat for most of the show.
“At one point, the scroll of my violin was too close to the microphone,” she recalled, and she tried pushing away from the microphone while still seated.
“The chair caught on the carpet,” Albanese recalled. “I heard and felt my right knee pop,” which produced pain so sharp and strong she knew the injury “was probably going to put me out for a while.”
She finished the concert “without anyone knowing,” the violinist explained.
“At the end, I asked for a bag of ice and told them what happened,” she wrote.
Immediately, “seven or eight senior citizens with walkers and canes shot out of their chairs and tried to come to my rescue,” she continued. “Everyone wanted to help.”
They bent over to retrieve items, a difficult maneuver for some seniors. Others used their walkers to bring Albanese her equipment. And they fussed over her.
“I was surrounded by the Village People,” Albanese wrote.
An 80-something man told her, “ ‘I’m going to stay with you all the way out to the car and make sure that you can drive,’ ” she wrote.
He added that “‘I was a member of the California Emergency Response Team, and I am a trained EMT.’”
Some residents packed all of Albanese’s musical equipment onto a cart they’d commandeered.
One woman loaned her walker to Albanese, saying the performer could use it “to get out to the parking lot” and her car. Then the woman hobbled out with the escort procession.
“I guess The Villages is the perfect place to get injured,” Albanese wrote. “It was such an incredible experience.”
Albanese said via phone that she’ll get medical treatment for the knee, but with ice, medication and babying, she’s able now to walk the dog, exercise a bit and perform.
She performed with the band Incendio for more than 250 people at an Aug. 29 concert in the outdoor amphitheater at Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria. Albanese also played Aug. 21 at the Dallidet Adobe in San Luis Obispo.
Albanese has planned another concert at Camp Ocean Pines on Oct. 17, as part of the Jill Knight Trio Revival with bassist/vocalist Eric Williams and percussionist Tim Costa. For details and tickets, which cost $30 apiece for adults and $15 for children, go to www.brynnalbanese.com.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 8:52 AM.
