Kindness begets kindness

On our way home from fisherman's wharf, we met a man walking with a stick. Obviously, he has some problems with his eyesight, so he needs to move around with a stick. The man alighted from the train with us at Berkeley station. However, instead, walking in the direction of the elevator to get out of the station, he headed towards the boarding platform for the train that goes in the opposite direction. There was no train at the boarding platform at that moment. This meant that he would fall into the track if nobody were to stop him in time. Surprisingly, nobody bothered to stop him even though there were so many people in the station on Saturday afternoon.

Fortunately, daddy was alert to pull him back and asked him where he was going. He told daddy that he wanted to get out of the station to take bus number 18. Of course, daddy volunteered to help him on the elevator so that he could get out the BART station safely and continue his journey. After we parted with him outside the station, we took a walk back to our apartment.

When we reached the lobby of our apartment, daddy wanted to reach for his keys to open the door to the lobby. It was then that daddy realised that he could not find his keys. The first thought that came to his mind is that he could have possibly lost his keys in the streetcar. The streetcar that we took on our way back from Fisherman's wharf was packed with people and
all the jostling could have caused him to drop his keys without knowing. Oh dear! The thought of replacing the keys frightened him because he has recently drawn out a new set of keys for his office and lab, and he was instructed by the person-in-charge that he has to make a police report if he were to lose them.

Anyway, there was nothing much that we could do at that moment except to go home and think of a solution. Fortunately, mommy had her keys with her, so we could still get into the apartment. Just when we opened the door back to our apartment, daddy's eyes suddenly sparkled with joy. Guess what?

His bunch of keys was still hanging on the wall. Thank god! Our fears were unfounded. He did not bring his keys out in the first place. Fortunately, the day was not ruined by the incident of losing his keys. It ended up well. We had fun at Fisherman's wharf and daddy helped someone who was in need at the BART station.

This incident also brings us back to what happened two years on Valentine's day in Breinigsville. There was a heavy snowstorm on that morning and daddy could not go to work. Mommy was still nursing our one and a half months old little girl at home. From our house, we saw a man trying to move his car that was trapped in the snow. Being kindhearted as usual, Daddy went out to help the driver push his car to the side so that it would not block the incoming traffic. Pushing a car in the snow is not an easy task. Daddy had to first shovel the snow away from the tires and then push the car with the help of the engine running. Daddy had to repeat the process a couples of times just to move the car by a few inches. Mommy witnessed the whole incident as she was looking through the window while holding our little girl in her arms.

When daddy returned home, he was completely exhausted and he suddenly realised that he had lost the apartment keys. Unlike the incident that happened on last Saturday, he really lost his keys at that time. He could have possibly dropped his keys in the snow while helping the person
to push his car. However, there was no way we could find the keys in the snow no matter how hard we tried. After the snow stopped, there were people clearing the snow from the roads and some of the snow were either removed or pushed to the side by the bulldozer. So, the probability of finding the lost keys in the snow was close to zero.

I could not remember exactly whether it was one week or two weeks later that daddy suddenly saw something familiar lying on a pile of ice when he got out of his car. Miraculously, he found his lost keys sitting on a pile of ice. Thank god! He found his keys back.

Until now, we still find it very incredible how daddy managed to retrieve his lost keys. All I can say is that kindness begets kindness and we will be rewarded ultimately by the seeds that we sow.