In "The Smallest Act of Kindness..." our author, Kevin Mollenhauer discovers how even the smallest act of kindness done for one patient can become something larger than itself and affect lives of others whom one may never know.
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Recently, while rounding on one of my patients, I noticed she seemed quieter than usual, so I sat down beside her and began not with a traditional physical exam but with the simple question "What are you thinking about this morning?"
She began to tell me about how she was physically feeling- I interrupted her, "we'll get to that in a few minutes, tell me, 'What are you thinking about this morning'?"
"Why?", she replied.
"Because", I replied.
"Because why?", she replied. "Because I'm quiet and not smiling?"
"Maybe", said I.
"I don't feel myself this morning...I feel disorganized and out of sorts", said she.
And the doors opened.... "I don't feel like I'm in control like when I'm home. I miss my coffee and paper, I miss reading my Bible, I miss writing in my journal...I know God wouldn't give me more than I can handle, and I hate to whine..."
"Is this what you do every morning?", said I.
"Yes", said she.
"Hold those thoughts", said I.
I quickly found her assigned nurse and asked her to get our friend a cup of coffee and a newspaper and to see if she could find a Bible. While she did this I walked down to the Gift Shop and explained what I needed to the sales associate who told me she had the perfect journal and proceeded to take me over to a bin with various journals. She reached in, moved a couple around, then selected one and said "This is perfect". And she was right. For printed on the cover was the poem "Footprints". It was perfect.
As I paid for the journal, another associate, having heard my story, walked up to me with a nice ink pen and asked if she could buy it for my patient...how could I refuse.
When I went back up to the floor I handed the journal and pen to her nurse and told her after I have left the patient take the journal and pen in and tell her someone had overheard her story and had dropped off a gift.
I went back to check on my patient and she was sitting up, sipping coffee, reading her Bible and sweetly smiling...
"Does that help?", I asked.
"Very much", said she.
"Well I'm so glad, I'll come by later. I've asked the staff to see if they can find some paper and a pen so you can write later", said I.
"That's not necessary", said she.
I left.
Later in the day I returned to find her writing in her new journal with her new pen.
"Wow, that's some fancy paper and pen they found for you", said I.
"The nurses told me someone heard how I like to write in my journal and dropped this off for me, and look at the cover...it's perfect" said she.
"It is perfect", said I.
This would be a great story but it doesn't end here...for you see in her few days with us she had become friends with another patient and they would visit each other as they walked with physical therapists and staff.
Later on the night of the journal arrival, the other patient found out she was going to need emergency surgery and broke down in my patient's room. My patient listened to her fears and shared her own story, ending the conversation by sharing her journal entries and reading the "Footprints" poem from the front cover.
And does the story end there? We may never know....
Because...
Quote
Each smallest act of kindness reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it's passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. - Dean Koontz
