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Cover Story
Photos by Randy Janoski
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W 7 /W American Profile asked readers to tell us '
tfrtr of kindness—both given and received—
mailbox overflowed with examples of the generous human spirit.
W Jeffrey Pluck of Kmghtdale. N.C.. said it best in his letter, which
RB appears below: “There are truly compassionate people in the world, and we fll
V must strive to pass it on to others. ” A
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Page 6
American Profile
Mailbox magic
Times got tough for James L Haas nearly 25 years ago
when he became a single father of two —a 13-year-old
daughter and 10-year-old son. “Pork and beans on toast
was not an unusual meal,” he says, “but we worked
together to make the best of the situation.”
Christmas was coming, but the little family knew they
would have to make do with what they had. All that
changed with a trip to the mailbox one November day.
“Our mailbox contained an envelope with no stamp
and just the name, Jim.’ Inside were five S2O bills
wrapped in tablet paper and no hint of who had left it
there. I was speechless. So much money at this time was
mote than I could understand," says Haas, now of
Hobart, Okla. (pop. 3,997).
The next month, he again found an identical envelope
with five S2O bills. “Although I would like to know the
identity of the giver or givers, I have had the mystery and
gratitude to hold on to for all these years,” Haas says.
“The experience, too, has made me more generous in
helping others now that time has relieved the burden of
many years ago.”
Flower power
Maggie Graney of Avon, Ind., (pop. 6,248) was in her
early 20s and living on her own for the first time—and
feeling a bit homesick. One day, during her lunch break
from a family-owned department store in California, she
sat on a patch of grass across from the store.
“I must have been looking very sad and lonely,
because when I looked up, a gentleman I did not know
was walking toward me with a bouquet of flowers he had
purchased from the street-side flower cart just a block
away,” she says.
“He handed them to me without saying a word, then
turned and walked away,” she says. “I never saw the man
again, but the kindness he showed toward me when I
needed it most still touches me 20 years later and will
never be forgotten.”
Shouldering the load
Jeffrey Huck of Knightdale, N.C., (pop. 5,958) trav
eled to Lubbock, Texas, last year to help his son,
Jonathan, get settled into his new home. After buying a
sleepier sofa from a department store, they realized it
wouldn’t fit into the car. “We sat in the parking lot try
ing to figure out what to do,” Fluck says.
Johnny Perez, pastor of the Church of the Blessed
in Lubbock, who had parked his pickup truck nearby,
noticed the sofa dilemma and offered to transport it
for them.
“We accepted his generosity, and he even helped
load and unload the sofa. I tried to pay him some-