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A STRING OF NICE GESTURES: Living in the predominately Christian south, where our religious practice is also our common cultural practice, especially at Mardi Gras, most of the faithful are settling into some kind of Lenten practice of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For many, that means changing habits, adopting different food practices and being more generous with monetary treasure. For those who have been repeating the same penance each year only to go back to doing the same thing after Easter, here is another suggestion. Each time we turn on the television, we are bombarded by bad and sometimes downright ridiculous things that are happening in our national and state governments. This news, although troublesome and depressing, robs the headlines on social media and TV news. Anyone else remember the song “A Little Good News” by Anne Murray? A wonderful practice would be for all of us to do something nice for someone else this Lent. Here’s an example. This past December, my dad received a simple hand-made Christmas card from a 10-year-old boy whose public-school class made them for nursing home residents. My dad was very proud of the card and that it was made, not purchased. The sender put his name at the top of the card. Each time someone walked into his room at the nursing home, my dad asked if they noticed his card, making sure to point out the boy’s name. He kept that card in his room for all to see. My brothers and I went to clear out my dad’s room after he died on January 7. The card was still where he put it, so I was sure to make a point of remembering the name of the boy who sent it. A few days after his services, as I wrote thank you cards, I remembered my dad’s card and thought that I should send the young creator a note to let him know how special that card was to my dad in his last days. Remembering that I had heard multiple times how easy it is to locate someone using computer technology, I typed his name and soon knew what school he attended, his parents and his address. I took out some stationery and wrote Gram a letter. I know that sometimes children do these class projects never knowing if anyone bothered to read or appreciate their efforts. I wanted Gram to know that was not true in my dad’s case. I mailed the letter to him and hoped that his parents would receive it in the way it was intended. This week I received a telephone call from Gram’s dad. He expressed deep gratitude for his son’s letter. I’ll let Gram’s dad pick up the story from here. “Recently, my 10-year-old son learned a valuable lesson in how kind things can mean more that we would ever think to the recipient of said kindness. What am I talking about? Well, a letter addressed to our son Gram arrived in our mailbox about two weeks ago. Obviously, the address on it generated interest as we opened it as a family in our kitchen. What came next was a beautiful story of the impact a hand-made Christmas card done in my son’s fourth grade class had on a gentleman living in a Thibodaux nursing home. Sadly, in January, that gentleman passed away. According to his daughter, Pamela Folse, after her dad received the card, he would make a point to proudly show it to any and everyone, including staff, that would visit or care for him. In her letter to Gram, she said the following, ‘Sometimes we don’t realize how the things that we do make a difference to others. I am so grateful to you for making my dad so happy in his last days.’ Needless to say, this letter brought joy and tears to us knowing that Gram’s actions meant so much to a man in the late stages of his life. What I appreciated was it gave us as parents an opportunity to sit down with our children, including Gram, and have a meaningful conversation about how important it is to be nice and kind to others.” In my conversation with Gram’s dad, Thad Angelloz of Thibodaux, we spoke of how kindness does matter and doing heartfelt things can and does have an impact well beyond anything we could ever imagine. Thad and I discovered that we have several things in common, most importantly, he is a columnist for the Times Online of Houma/Thibodaux. He asked my permission to write about the letter to Gram in his newspaper column which appeared this past weekend. In exchange, I will have the privilege of meeting with Gram, his twin brother, and his family real soon. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind, and the results will last a lot longer than giving up Coke or candy for Lent.