Little things that matter

Hall of Famer and Yankee star Yogi Berra

At a father-and-son banquet at which he was to speak, Baseball star and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was happily signing his name on bats and balls given to youngsters attending when he noticed a group of lads who had no gifts. Inquiring, he was told they were from a nearby orphanage. Berra left his head table to sit with them and sign their programs with his autograph. When one of the organizers asked him to return to the head table and say a few words, Yogi said, ‘Go ahead with the program, I’m busy talking to some friends.’

Richard Levangie was heart-broken at the age of 19, following the death of his father, three other relatives and a close friend. One day,feeling especially empty, he went to Mass in a strange church and sat off by himself to the side, barely participating at the rite. At the sign of peace, he recalled, “Two elderly women hobbled over to my solitary corner on fragile legs. Their journey seemed to take forever, and yet their greeting was warm and caring. In the moment it took them to arrive, I made the decision to rejoin the living.”
When Linda Bremner’s 8-year-old son entered an Illinois hospital for treatment of the cancer that eventually took his life, he was inundated with mail. His mother noticed how it lifted his spirits. She made sure he received mail for three years. After his death, Mrs. Bremner obtained the names of other ailing children and began sending them cards, puzzles, riddles, jokes and the like. Now through her non-profit organization ‘Love Letters’ she sends ‘fun stuff’ to almost 500 terminally ill children each month.