What a pleasure to check in several times a day and read this thread. The only limitation is that Colin asked what the greatest thing was that we'd done. I can't do that, myself... I just gave an example of something that had just happened, which I would never describe in my own mind as something "great" that I had done. As Bill says... you see a need and you react. There is nothing intellectual about it, or premeditated. The value of reading all these postings is to be reminded that there are as many situations where you can help someone as the mind can imagine.

In this country, Colin, there's a great interest in lists... the ten best songs you've ever heard, the ten best movies... It's kind of a variant on playground days when you had a "first-best" friend, a "second-best" friend, and on and on. I see the "threads" in this thread. One is making peace with a family member. I can relate to that, too, having been estranged from my parents for several years before finding a closeness and peace far greater than I had ever known before, with them. Bill talks about consideration, as do several others. It always moves me when my wife and I call someone who is going through a hard time in their life, or suffering with an illness and they say, "You just made my day." Just letting people know that they are not forgotten is a wonderful gift to them, even if it's only a five minute phone conversation. For a couple of years, we visited a woman in a nursing home who had no family or friends, could not walk, and could barely see. Every time we left, we'd each take one of her hands and hold her, and she always said, "Please don't forget me." That was the most important thing in the world to her, because she spent her days locked in a body that no longer worked, not able to see well enough even to watch television. We always assured her that we would never forget her. When she died a couple of weeks ago, my wife was very sick, but she got herself out of bed and we went to her funeral. All we could hear was her parting plea: "please don't forget me."

Sometimes that's all it takes..

Jerry