When Halloween came around this year we were all set with our costumes. Jackson was dressing up as Perry the Platypus and yes it was a homemade costume that my dear friend made for him! It was a replica of his favorite stuffed animal, a beanie boo named Perry.

Little brother was going as an inflatable dinosaur. I was going to be a skeleton, but that day during clinicals, I had one of the worst days of the year and came home in tears. I most definitely didn’t want to go out in the terrible weather we were having that day, which was high winds and rain, to go trick or treating. I sat the boys down and we discussed our options. They quickly both agreed that they didn’t want to deal with the weather either and would like to pass out candy.

Once the time came, they happily handed out candy and then about 3 minutes in…little brother realized that he wanted to just run to a couple nearby houses to trick or treat. He did that and Jackson and I continued to pass out candy. About 4 minutes after that Jackson saw kids running around outside and noticed that the rain had stopped. He asked if he could then go trick or treating.

So I forfeited my costume for warm clothes, Jackson and his little brother forfeited their costumes because 1) an inflatable costume + high winds= TROUBLE. and 2) a homemade platypus costume once wet will be like dragging heavy material around. So we got out our old costumes and Jackson grabbed my old dinosaur costume and his little brother grabbed Jackson’s old corgi costume. We headed out in the cold and wind and within 5 minutes it began to rain again. I had jackson’s new mobility scooter with me and let him know that whenever he needed it, it would be available.

We walked around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes and Jackson began getting very fatigued. He took a rest in the stroller and I pushed him around for the rest of the night. What happened after that became quite interesting to me. As I pushed him up to the various houses people made random comments like “can he get out of there” (they didn’t want to have to walk off their porch). Another person said, “ahhhh…i don’t want to walk over there because my socks will get wet”. This happened over and over again. To the point that little brother began getting the candy for his brother. Then Jackson just gave up. He said “forget it, i want to go home”.

We began heading home and we were cold, wet, and tired. As we rounded the last road there were a few houses with their lights on. Little brother ran to one and I kept pushing Jackson. Then all of a sudden I looked up and saw an older gentleman walking not only out of his house and onto the porch, but walked all the way down his driveway. He came right up to the boys and told them to pick as much candy as they wanted. Jackson took one. He said to take more, but Jackson insisted on just one. I thanked him and we made the trek home.

It was such a simple, yet profound thing that this gentleman did. He was observant and although he didn’t know the situation, he could tell that something was different. And here’s the biggest part…..HE DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

The simple act of making the situation easier and not drawing attention to it. Just acting and making such an impact in our life.

This man probably had no idea how it impacted us since Halloween. I have thought about it constantly and how when the holidays rolled around I wanted to do something as a ‘Thank You’. So I recently got some chocolate chip cookies together and made a little gift basket up and wrote down the story in a card to deliver. I went over to the house and knocked on the door. A man answered and I wasn’t sure if it was the same person or not, so I introduced myself and asked if it was him that was there on that Halloween night. He said that it was his Father who had been there.

I told him that his Father is a good man and told him the story of what happened and how that simple act of kindness made such a significant impact on our lives. How grateful we were. He remarked “that’s my Dad”. Of course when I began talking about Jackson and his struggles with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy I began crying. I then finished what I was saying, handed him the cookies and card…and by this point his 2 daughters had gathered to hear what was going on.

I am so very thankful that kindness can be found in negative situations. I am grateful to this man who went out of his way when he didn’t have to. I am also glad that i took the time to acknowledge this individual and hope that others can become aware and less ignorant when they see someone who may be different and instead of judging or turning away, they lean into the situation and try to help in any way possible.