sonia: colorfully dressed men & women dancing in a circle (dance)
Sonia Connolly ([personal profile] sonia) wrote2020-10-31 09:18 pm

Good deeds

One of the silver linings of dancing on Zoom is that I'm dancing with people who live further away, including the group of fabulous dancers from Corvallis. Some of those folks have danced together for 50 years! My friend Jim who died in 2014 lived there before he moved to Portland, so when I mention him, they share their love and care and respect for him too. Makes me miss him all over again!

He moved to Portland with his wife Leona because she had Alzheimer's and they could get better support here. She danced with us for a while, but then she couldn't anymore. I made her a CD of all the oldies that I grew up with, that she had also danced to when she was younger. Jim said she loved that CD and responded to it when she no longer responded to much. I'm glad I could give them that.

What's a good deed you did that made a big difference for someone, even if it wasn't that big a deal for you?
silveradept: A dragon librarian, wearing a floral print shirt and pince-nez glasses, carrying a book in the left paw. Red and white. (Dragon Librarian)

[personal profile] silveradept 2020-11-01 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
If you look at my profession with the most vocational awe-filled lens you can find, every day at work could be classified as this, even if I rarely get to hear back about how much they were affected by it, but I do have something slightly more conventionally on target.


In 2019, at Local Metropolitan Comic Convention, after a particularly fun and intimate discussion between two panelists catching up on their lives, there was some merch selling going on and autographing happening from one of the panelists. I know from long experience that in the panel rooms, wireless telephone signal does not reach. Consequently, a couple that wanted to purchase and have their books signed was having difficulty because they were paying by credit, which needed the aforementioned wireless signal. I still had some convention money left over, so I politely inquired about the cost, and then paid it from the cash in my wallet, so that nobody would have to come back in the morning or wait to get things done, to effusive thanks from both panelist and the couple. When u went back to get my own copy signed at the birth the next morning, apparently the panelist had talked about the really nice person who had popped up and paid for the couple to her husband that night, and possibly to others as well, for all I know. So I paid some money out of my own already-budgeted funds to make someone else happy, and I'd say it was a good trade.
minoanmiss: Minoan lady scribe holding up a recursive scroll (Scribe)

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2020-11-01 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Are you a librarian? If so I am beaming at you from afar!

Well, I am anyway. That was a very kind thing you did!
silveradept: A head shot of a  librarian in a floral print shirt wearing goggles with text squiggles on them, holding a pencil. (Librarian Goggles)

[personal profile] silveradept 2020-11-01 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, that's the work I do. I got into the profession for what I think are good reasons, and I've picked up some good ones to stay, as well. Librarianship is starting to flux a bit more and have a (small, slow) discussion about which values should be kept, which ones jettisoned, and which ones should be subordinated to bigger ideas, so I can hope that we move the profession in a better direction.
minoanmiss: Girl with beads in hair and stars in eyes (Star-Eyed Girl)

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2020-11-01 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm a member of Postcrossing, and I noticed that one of the people who sent me a card wrote out her return address, very tiny, by hand. So I made labels for her and sent them to her, and she wrote back very pleased. :)

A wee thing but it did seem to make her day.
amethyst73: (Default)

[personal profile] amethyst73 2020-11-02 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
I can think of two things (one of them prompted by silveradept's story):

The first was calling in my mom's rector to her hospital room as she lay dying, shortly after I arrived after flying across the country. She'd given a minimal (but present) response when I came in - sort of a half-opening of her eyes, and a sense of "oh good, you're here." When the rector came in and spoke, she opened her eyes wide and raised herself up partway out of bed. It clearly meant A TON to her that Father Joe had come on her last day on earth.

The second is less dramatic but sweet. I was in the library used-book store about a year ago and overheard a tween sighing over a book whose price exceeded the funds she had in her pocket. I asked about the book, and she told me how she had the ENTIRE REST OF THE SERIES but didn't have THIS one but didn't have enough money to pay for it. So I added the book to my purchases (I think it was all of $10) and gave it to her. She was aglow with delight - and so was I. :)
jesse_the_k: My black mutt totally blissed out, on her back, paws folded (BELLA on back)

What a great question!

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2020-11-02 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)

As I'm sure you know, I'll talk about wheelchairs at the drop of a hat. Over the years at WisCon folks have asked me "so, how does one get a wheelchair?" I've been able to provide an eagle-eye overview and encouraged trying it out. One person wrote me a thank you saying I'd "completely changed her life."