Meaningful Mother’s Day

My niece, Meredith Krauss, posted her Mother’s Day activities on Facebook like so many others, but they’re worth sharing for two reasons. First, she turned the phrase “random acts of kindness” into action. Second, she had her two young sons with her.

Her posts were called “the kindness challenge” and I don’t know if it was a community program or something she did on her own. The first act was a stop at her local coffee spot and the post was Kindness Challenge No.1: paying for coffee for the next person in line.

Kindness Challenge No. 2 was gathering the carts left around the grocery store parking lot and putting them in their proper place. The third Challenge was taking sweet treats to the nurses at the local hospital who had to work on Mother’s Day.

Carson and Logan, both under ten, were with her and I can hear her explaining why performing good deeds is important, why it makes you, as well as others, feel good. Better yet, I can hear her mother Deborah Ereth (my late sister), saying the same things because she was the kind of person who exemplified kindness with a capital K.

My sister was the cookie queen. She took them to neighbors, she took them to work, she took them to friends who needed a boost. She was generous to a fault. Even as a little kid I remember her giving me her allowance if I was saving for something special.

She grew up to be tall and that stature was all heart. Even when she knew she was dying, she still baked for others and offered to help me with writing projects. She was excited I was writing a book set in another time period in and emailed me articles she found about life in Regency England, or when I was on a tight deadline, she’d research some important information I needed and send it to me.

That book, Scandal’s Child, will be published by Soul Mate Publishing soon and it will be dedicated to her.

My niece’s Mother’s Day acts of kindness will be what her boys will remember long into the future. In an uncertain world, it will help them develop compassion, a human emotion sometimes lost in the struggle. And it’s a good lesson for all of us.

Thank you, Meredith for reminding us why Mothers have their own day.