Kindness and generosity. Kindness and showing people that you care doesn't have to cost much. My wife liked to do the little things that made people know that she cared.
At Halloween she would make the neighborhoods kids that we knew a special halloween bag. It had lots of candy in it, some money, and their name on it. When we had neighborhood kids help us do something like feed the pond fish when we were gone. We paid them well. We weren't cheap. After all they were kids and could use the money.
When a co-worker was going thru a bad divorce. We bagged up food, and gave money. Marianne even went out and made sure her girls had femine products.
When a cousin and an aging aunt were broke and a furnace went. We paid to have the furnace put in.
My wife cooked or baked when somebody was sick or to say thank you. Whether somebody took us to a hockey game or did something special Marianne gave back. I learned never to go to a party or a friends get together without bringing beer, wine, desert, or food. It was a given.
When it was a wedding, shower, graduation party. Don't be cheap is what she taught me. Sure she even shocked me sometimes with what she gave, but her generous heart always won out. It wasn't to show off, because we aren't rich by a ny means. It was just the way she was.
If we went to somebodies cottage. We brought even more food and drink than if we were going to a party. The people had left overs when we left. It wasn't unusual for her to bring two bags of food for a weekend. She would never be accused of being a mouch or a taker.
When somebody needed a friend, or was going thru a tough time she was there to listen. She spent hours listening to "situations" that she couldn't change. But she was there for the other person to let it all out.
But generosity and kindness doesn't have to be material. It can be just time helping a friend sew something, or helping them with a crafty project. Yes she went over to a person's house once to help their child make something for a school fund raiser. It was going out of the way for somebody. It was rushing around to fit it in. But that's the way my Marianne was. When people come by while she sleeps two of the words they use to describe her are kind and generous.
That is what my wife Marianne taught me.
Mandon Lake White Lake Michigan
Middle Straits Lake West Bloomfielde
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