Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Clara Wersterfer

March 22, 2007

An Act of Kindness 
by Clara Wersterfer


The sky was a dirty gray. Clouds hung so low it seemed you could reach up
and touch them. It was spitting a few flakes of snow with a slight wind. The
temperature was in the 20's.  The winter of 1940 was cold in the mountains.

It was a bone chilling, face freezing, penetrating kind of cold.

Lilly was going about her morning chores in the warmth of her home, when
she heard a knock on the door. Opening it, there stood Mr. Gibson, her neighbor.

"Come in out of the cold." She opened the door wide for him. "Is everything ok?

How is your wife?" Lilly asked.

Mrs. Gibson had cancer and was confined to her bed most of the time.

"She is about the same. I have come to ask a favor. We are almost out of wood

for the stove and wondered if you had some to spare until we get our welfare check?"

Lilly didn't know how to reply. Her wood supply was pretty low. Her
husband was gone for the week. He had a job sixty miles away in the town

where a sister lived. He usually stayed with his sister in law and her husband
to avoid the extra expense of buying gas. Some times the road was
impassable due to weather.

This morning Lilly had wondered if she would have enough wood to last until her husband came home with a load from her sister’s farm. Now with the severe cold,

she was concerned it would not last. She couldn't suggest the Gibsons’ move in
with her temporarily.

Mrs. Gibson needed to be in her own place. She told Mr. Gibson she would

see what she could do and be back in touch.

What could she do?

Lilly's sister lived two blocks away. She would go and talk to her.
Maybe she had some wood or coal to spare. Two heads were better than
one.

Lilly bundled up as warmly as she could and made the trek to her sister’s house.
Sitting in the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee, the sisters talked about what to do

for the Gibsons’. June told Lilly she had very little extra wood to burn as the

weather had turned so cold, the stove seemed to eat it like tissue paper. They
didn't have enough money to buy wood for the Gibsons’.

Lilly had an idea. The railroad tracks were not too far away. Train cars
loaded with coal sometime spilled coal on to the tracks. Maybe they could take
a sack and borrow a wagon from one of Junes' sons and pick up some coal. It
was a plan.

They put on all the clothes and scarves they could find, got the wagon and a

tow sack before going out in the bitter cold. The ladies would walk, stop to

pick up a few pieces of coal, put it in the sack and walk for what seemed a

mile before finding a few more pieces. The icy wind brought tears to their eyes,
and the tears froze on their faces.

When they reached the unloading depot, a man was on top of a box
car of coal. He would shovel the coal down a chute to a waiting truck.
The man greeted the ladies and remarked what a cold day it was. He asked
why they were out in this weather. They answered they were picking
up coal to burn. The man lifted his large coal filled shovel and
then turned the shovel sideways pouring the coal on the ground. Twice
more he spilled his shovel of coal on the ground, commenting he was
clumsy today, couldn't hit the chute and what went on the ground was left there.

Somehow, he knew those ladies would not take any coal unless they thought it was
going to waste. Next he climbed down the ladder and muttered he needed a
cup of coffee and would be back soon. The women had just finished filling the

sack when he returned with two cups of hot coffee for them.

They took the coffee, and thanked him profusely. Lilly asked his first
name, explaining she wanted to mention it in her prayers tonight. The man

smiled.

"Do you think the Lord will bless me for spilling my employer’s coal on
the ground?"

June spoke up. "He will bless you for your act of kindness.
He will bless you for keeping two elderly people warm during this cold
spell. Not only will this coal warm their bodies, but it will also warm
their hearts. Yes, you will be blessed." Thanking him again, they left.

Somehow the trip home didn't seem as far. They took turns pulling the wagon,
now heavy with coal, but their hearts were much lighter. Upon reaching
the Gibson home, the four people held hands while they thanked God for the total stranger whose act of kindness had helped them accomplish their mission. The
Gibsons had enough coal to last them until the weather broke and their
check arrived. Jan 2007

Clara Wersterfer

cbWEST@webtv.net