The kindness of strangers: I was five years old when a woman I'll never know gave me an extravagant doll
One day – I must have been no more than five – I was wandering through the local town hall with my mother. Some sort of fair was in full swing and I happened upon a table where, for a mere penny, I could try my luck to win a doll. I didn't have a penny, but I did have a fervent wish to have a doll – particularly the beautiful one with the gloriously extravagant light blue dress!
I lingered at the table watching people try their luck and hoping no one would win the doll I felt was mine. At some point, a woman – I'll never know who she was – decided to play and won the chance to choose a doll from the dozen or so settled along the wall.
As she prepared to claim her prize, she turned to me and, with a smile that I can still remember today, asked me to choose. I hesitated until she said: 'Which one would you like to take home with you?'
Feeling emboldened, I pointed tentatively to the doll with the magnificent pale blue dress. A moment later, the doll floated down from the wall and into my waiting hands. It was mine. I was overwhelmed with wonder.
This incredibly kind woman had noticed the longing in the eyes of a little girl and made her dream come true. Her act of kindness was a moment of pure magic. I cherished that beloved doll until I was 17, when we left Australia to move to Canada and luggage restrictions forced me to bequeath her to another.
That woman sowed the seeds of my own belief that small acts of kindness can change lives. We are regularly confronted with choices about how to treat other people and how to interpret their words and actions. I try to be forgiving and empathetic because I believe very sincerely in the goodness of people, in large part because of that day at the fair. Sixty five years later, I can say that I am a better person because of that woman.
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