Recently I had occasion to be in the company of some dear friends who personify kindness in all they say and do. They treated another friend and me to a night out of dinner and theater where we were all enthralled by an amazing performance of Handle’s Messiah.

When it was time to leave the theater we encountered an elderly couple making their way to the outdoors where they would be picked up by their daughter. My friends immediately took these people under their wing and spoke encouragingly to them as we waited in the cold night air for their transportation to arrive.

Now, we are a group of four of which I am the eldest at eighty-one, while my companions are still in their seventies…mere babes. The elderly couple were eighty-eight and ninety, she with a cane, and he, a rollator walker. When these dear folks were safely tucked into their daughter’s van with the help of my friends, we continued on our way to the subway which would be our means of transportation for the better part of the return home.

One of us seniors also uses a cane for temporary support and was the first to enter the slightly crowded train. As we stepped into the warmth of the subway car, four multi-cultural youths immediately and simultaneously stood up to offer us their seats.

It was the perfect ending to an evening which started with kindness and ended with the instant kindness of these four young people of various ethnic backgrounds.

It was truly a happy experience to be long remembered and I am smiling just relating it here.