Paying Goodness Forward

When my father’s prostate cancer spread to his bones, he had to be transported to his doctors’ appointments in a wheelchair. It was cumbersome to get him in and out of the car and into the doctors’ offices, and it quickly wore him out.

One afternoon, I took off from work to drive Dad to a new urologist. He suggested Dad receive a monthly injection to curtail the effects of the disease. As he further examined Dad, I saw his eyes take in my father’s tiredness and anguish. Suddenly, he said: “Why don’t you let me stop by your house once a month to do these injections? That way, you won’t have to travel all this way to see me.”

Dad smiled for the first time in weeks. “You don’t mean it, Doc,” he said. “I didn’t think you fellows made house calls anymore.”

After I got Dad settled at home and returned to my job, there was a new spirit in my step. To my surprise, I heard myself offer to help a coworker with a project that far exceeded my comfort zone. As we labored over a spreadsheet, she told me: “I think I’ll go home tonight and fix my husband’s favorite spaghetti dinner. Who knows, he may get the energy to help our next-door neighbor with his gutters.”

In matters large and small, help us to pay it forward with our kindnesses to those around us.