Take a few moments to cry.

Originally shared by Doc Harvard's Variety Show

Take a few moments to cry.

Bill Emerson of Quicken Loans sent the following out through my day job's email. It tells a tearful story but also asks a question of if you will share or not - I'm sharing it and my own story.

This is the story of how an act of kidness, a greatful family, and the unfortunate death of a blind girl turned into an entire military base worth of kidness.

Many years ago I met a blind girl and her parents while I was volunteering at the Special Olympics. At the time I didn't know there was more broken in her than just here eyes. I say broken because just because there's something broken in you doesn't make it wrong.

As I talked to her family I realized I could help them. I did everything from cleaning their tolets to mentoring/tutoring their son so that they would be able to live a more normal life. I was deployed for Dessert Storm. When I came back to the family I had been helping was there to greet me. I was excited as I expected no family of my own to greet me and here was another family, a family that had adopted me as one of their own. There was some one missing, the Niki wasn't there. I found out that her other medical issues had taken her life.

But this story isn't about me, while I was deployed my Army buddies that weren't knew how important this was to me and had went and taken care of Niki and her family. These were some of the hardest partying people I knew in the military, many of them considered getting into a bar brawl a night of light entertainment. These very same people stopped all of that to take care of a blind girl and her family because it was important to one of their fellow soldiers.

At the time of the funeral over 50 soldiers requested time off, I didn't know that many people had been involved. This caught the company commander's attention and once he found out what was going on he made Niki an honorary member of the U.S. Army [which to this day I don't think has ever actually been allowed] and ordered the entire company, in this case over 200 soldiers, to attend and provide military honors befitting a soldier of the U.S. Army.

The story doesn't end there though, the base commander wanted to know why an entire company of soldiers weren't at their stations for the day and other companies were having to cover. When he found out he did whatever he had to do in order to make it happen but he had a center built, from scratch, to help families with children that face very real challenges in the world because they have broken bits.

There's two very important things to take away from my story. The first, but of lesser importance, for those that think all soldiers do is warmonger you're sadly mistaken. The second, and infinately more important, is that one person did something kind that lead to thousands of people doing something kind.

Hopefully my story will move you to share your story but if it doesn't then read the story that inspired me to share my story.

=================================

Please take a minute and read this to the end.  It is so important
and so moving, especially at this time of the year.

Two Choices

What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch
line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have
made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with
learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a
speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After
extolling the school and its Dedicated staff, he offered a question:

'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature
does, is done with perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot
understand things as other children do.

Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was
mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity
to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way
other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were
playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I
knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their
team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed
to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some
confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting
much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and
said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning.
I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in
the ninth inning..'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put
on a team shirt.. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in
my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but
was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the
right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously
ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear
to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run
was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to
win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was
all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat
properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the

Plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting
winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to
lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly
towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground
ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown
the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's
head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first!

Run to first!'

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.

He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!'

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and
struggling to make it to the base.

By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had
the ball . The smallest guy on their team who now had his first
chance to be the hero for his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but
he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally
threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him
circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help
him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third!

Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators,
were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero
who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his
face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and
humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having
never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming
home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second
thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices,
people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace,
but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our
schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that
you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who
aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well,
the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.

We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help
realize the 'natural order of things.'

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us
with a choice:

Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up
those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's
least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:

1. Ignore

2. Share and tell your story

#shareyouractofkidness