THE HELPFUL STRANGER
A young mother on an overnight flight with a two-year-old daughter
was stranded by bad weather in
the Chicago airport without food or clean clothing for the child and without
money. She was two months pregnant
and threatened with miscarriage,
so she was under doctor's instructions
not to carry the child unless
it was essential. Hour after hour she stood in one line after another,
trying to get a flight to Michigan.
The terminal was noisy, full of tired, frustrated, grumpy passengers,
and she heard critical references
to her crying child and to her sliding her child along the floor with her
foot as the line moved forward. No one offered to help with the soaked,
hungry, exhausted child.
Then, the woman later reported, "someone came towards us and with
a kindly smile said, 'Is there
something I could do to help you?' With a grateful sigh I accepted
his offer. He lifted my sobbing little daughter from the cold floor
and lovingly held her to him while he patted her gently on the back.
He asked if she could chew a piece of gum. When she was settled down,
he carried her with him and said something kindly to the others in
the line ahead of me, about how
I needed their help. They seemed to
agree and then he went up to
the ticket counter (at the front of the line)
and made arrangements with the
clerk for me to be put on a flight leaving shortly.
He walked with us to a bench, where we chatted a moment, until he
was assured that I would be fine.
He went on his way. About a week later
I saw a picture of Apostle Spencer
W. Kimball and recognized him as the stranger in the airport."
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The ending of this story comes from a letter written to President Kimball years later.:
"Dear President Kimball:
"I am a student at Brigham Young University. I have just returned
from my mission in Munich West
Germany. I had a lovely mission and learned much...
"I was sitting in priesthood meeting last week, when a story was
told of a loving service which
you performed some 2l years ago in the Chicago airport. The story
told of how you met a young pregnant mother
with a young screaming child
in ...a (condition of) distress waiting in a
long line for her tickets.
She was threatening miscarriage and therefore couldn't lift her child to
comfort her. She had experienced four previous miscarriages which
gave added reason for the doctor's orders not to bend
or lift.
"...You comforted the crying child, and explained the dilemma to the other
passengers in line. This act of love took the strain and tension
off of
my mother. I was born a
few months later in Flint, Michigan. I just want
to thank you for your love.
Thank you for your example!"
(quoted by Gordon B. Hinckley,
Christmas Devotional address,
18 Dec., 1983)
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President Spencer W. Kimball:
"God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through
another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that
we serve each other in the kingdom. The people of the Church need
each other's strength, support, and leadership...In the Doctrine and Covenants
we read about how important it is to '...succor the weak, lift up
the hands which
hang down, and strengthen the
feeble knees.' (D&C 81:5). So often, our
acts of service consist of simple
encouragement or of giving mundane
help with mundane tasks, but
what glorious consequences can flow from mundane acts and from small but
deliberate deeds!"
("Small Acts of Service," Ensign, Dec. 1974, p. 5)
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