After writing the last post about Kindness During the Pandemic, I decided that I would keep writing posts on the subject as more good news came in. Who knew that it would come in so quickly that just a few days later I’d have so many stories to share that it would be time to write another.

Almost immediately after posting, another blogger commented with a lovely story. Bhasha Mukherjee, the current Miss England returned from traveling and working with charities as Miss England to return to being a doctor in the UK.

New York City is often portrayed as a cold hard city filled with people who don’t care. My experience has been quite the opposite. And this story from Brooklyn shows exactly what I mean. A landlord there who has 200-300 tenants in 18 buildings let all of his tenants know that they would not need to pay their rent for the month of April. The median rent in Brooklyn is $3,000 USD so this works out to a lot of money – much of which, no doubt, goes to upkeep, utilities and possibly even mortgage payments for the buildings themselves.

In Delhi, some rickshaw pullers are giving rides free of charge to those in need. And some of them who have to rent their rickshaws are not even being charged rent for them. (Thanks to Abhay for sharing this story on his blog.)

Like Miss England who changed jobs to take on the work that was most needed, people everywhere are doing the same. In Kanpur a professor cooks 1,000 meals a day for children and migrant workers. I can’t say enough that this is the most inspiring thing to see: someone seeing a problem or a need and instead of thinking “Someone should do something about this.” they just go out and do it.

Another good story of humans being good humans comes from my own city. Last Saturday night, a huge supermarket was accidentally left unlocked after the store closed and all the workers went home. The next day was Easter Sunday and the store was to be closed. But as it was unlocked and even the automatic doors were working, people went in in the morning. Nobody thought much of it at first, assuming that it was just not very busy and that there weren’t a lot of staff because they wanted to maintain minimum staff during the pandemic. But in fact, by the time many of them had done their shopping, they realized that nobody was there. Some people, still needing groceries took what they needed. But as they did they took note of what they took so they could return later and pay for it. After some time the police were called and store staff came to lock up the store properly. Police are saying they have no confirmation that anything was taken. Think about that for a minute: An entire supermarket full of food was left open all night. No noticeable amount of food was taken and those who did say they were taking things (the article talks about two of them: a doctor and a food bank worker) wrote down everything they bought so they could come back later and pay.

Everywhere people continue to appreciate their healthcare workers. In the UK, an entire street applauded for a paramedic on her way to her job working in the night shift.

Finally, a post from my current favourite person to follow on Facebook. Anne-Marie Zajdlik (you can follow her here) works in a clinic in Guelph, Ontario – a small city just to the west of us. I love her updates because she is able to get across the serious nature of what we’re going through while also being encouraging and hopeful. Lately her posts have been talking a bit about how generous and kind people are being. In this entry she talks about being interrupted by so many people coming to the door throughout the day. They’re not coming for treatment, though. They’re coming to bring donations including masks, face shields and other personal protective equipment.

In my last entry on the subject, I shared ways to help seniors in Ontario feel connected by sending messages by email to be shared with them. Today I am sharing some different information. Amnesty International has published a list of fundraisers being done to help people in India. They’ve got the fundraisers classified by many different groups from migrant labourers to the urban poor to the transgender community to healthcare workers and sanitation workers and more. If you are feeling moved to help, you can make a real difference.

Stay safe, friends, and if you know of more stories on this topic let me know by message or in the comments and I will share them in the next entry.