My friend, Myra, had gotten in touch to tell me that a woman we both knew had been hospitalized with an advanced stage of cancer. I hadn't seen or spoken with the woman in the hospital in over a decade and didn't think she'd remember me or care to hear from me. It was just two weeks later that I got the notice of her passing, she was only 59.
Around the same time, my yoga teacher's mother had been suddenly hospitalized with a rapidly advancing cancer, and within two weeks, she passed on. We all signed a card for Katie with sympathies about her mother.
Katie returned to the yoga studio to teach a couple of weeks later. When she saw me come in, she said, "You knew my mother." I was a bit taken aback, I didn't know Katie's last name, so wasn't sure who she was referencing.
She explained that she'd spent the previous Sunday with Myra and they put the pieces together. Her mother was the woman I'd not seen or spoken with in over a decade and hesitated to reach out to, before it was too late.
Having lost my own mother suddenly when I was just 24 years old, and I knew Katie wasn't much older than that, I felt defensive and dismayed. If I had known, I'd have reached out. Today there aren't six degrees of separation, but often well less than three.
When you can be kind, do it. When you can reach out, even if you don't know someone well, or think they'll remember you, do it. Never miss a chance to make another feel important and loved.
