The first story of humanKINDness I want to share with you is my own, and one that touched my heart deeply. In 1997 my late father was shot on his farm in Muldersdrift. For the next two months he was in ICU in the Hospital, fighting for his life. It was an incredibly difficult time for me with two young children, a husband and a full-time job… I was struggling to process and work through the emotional trauma of this horrid event. My daughter was due to celebrate her eight birthday during this time and sadly, she shared her birthday with my father. Usually this would be a time of joy and celebration, as we would celebrate their birthdays together. Now, her birthday was marked with conflicting feelings as we had to plan a day of celebration for a young child in the midst of a great personal tragedy. My soul friend Lidia Botha surprised me by baking and icing the most beautiful pink cat cake for my daughter’s birthday party. I was filled with gratitude and overwhelmed by this incredible act of KINDness that made my daughter’s day so special, in spite of all the sadness surrounding it.

The story of KINDness continued when Lidia baked this same cake again for my daughter on her 21^st birthday. It was deeply moving and we were all in tears as we reflected on this moment of compassionate care that forever changed my daughter’s and my own memories of grief into something meaningful. That small act of KINDness many years ago, showed me that it was possible to find meaning in our suffering… I realised that we cannot change what happens to us but we can choose how we respond to it.

Your act of KINDness in baking the same cake a third time for the celebration of the HumanKINDweb, will forever reverberate in my heart, Lidia. I share this story with others to honour you and to celebrate the compassionate and KIND human you are – a trueKINDer!