There are still good people

November 16, 2015

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

A few days ago, I was informed by my daughter that our grandson, Caleb, had been robbed while at school. He is 12 years old today (11/16/15) and is a great kid. Apparently, he was involved in some activity in the gym at his school in Marion, Iowa, and he had ?hid? his billfold underneath his jacket by a nearby wall. When he returned, his stuff had been moved and all his money had been stolen from his wallet. A few days before, he had received his birthday card from us and with 12 one-dollar bills inside, one dollar for each year, and his birthday money had been taken. He was devastated. We were so concerned about our grandson that we decided to go see him right away. We had shared our story with a few friends before church, and a couple of them shared their stories about similar incidents that happened to them and how it affected them. When we left church, this young man came up to our car and handed me a folded piece of tablet paper that was taped shut. He asked us to give it to our grandson that had been robbed at school. When we finally got to our grandson, it was apparent that he was still very upset. An experience like this is a pretty big deal to a kid. He went over what happened and it was clear how upset he still was ? an event like this can really change the way you trust people. Both his family and us reassured him that money isn?t everything and told him things like ?just assume that someone else needed it more.? He agreed, but surprised us by telling us that ?A kid I didn?t even know came up to me at school and gave me a dollar bill ? he said that he heard about me getting robbed and wanted to help.? He added that he didn?t think that this other kid had very much money. This act of kindness obviously had a big effect on my grandson and I got the impression that he remembered that act of kindness even more than about his money being stolen. I handed him the taped-up note from the fellow at church. There was a note inside it and a folded $20 bill. My grandson read the note and looked awestruck. He said, ?This is like that boy at school that I didn?t even know.? He asked, ?Can I keep this letter?? He went to his room and was going to write him a thank-you note. We will have to find his address and his last name. He has a great family, and they would have tried their best to make this up to him, but those acts of kindness from strangers were almost a miracle.

Carla and Michael McCandless