Before the Blog

I distributed the "Nicer Place" cards for a little over a year before I began this Blog. The responses were interesting. Most people appeared confused by a complete stranger handing them a card. Usually I would just give a card along with a smile and a few words along the lines of " I wanted to pass on this card and you seemed the perfect person to give it to".

Often I had walked away before they had time to read what it said. However sometimes I was still there while they looked at it and every response can best be described as appreciative amazement. Complete strangers have given me hugs, handshakes and tears.

The tears were from a lovely, efficient, friendly waitress in a coffee shop in Iqaluit on Baffin Island in northern Canada. Apparently both her parents were dying and much in her life was going wrong. She said the words on the card were the nicest thing that had happened to her in a very long time and that they would help her keep going through the difficult times that were coming.

In Prescott Arizona we stopped at a Blimpie's and gave a card to a very charming woman behind the counter then sat at a table for our coffee break. A few minutes later she came over to us with two cookies and said we were the very first people to ever acknowledge the work she does with a thank-you.

Some of the many people who have caused me to smile or impressed me with their kindness and have been given cards are:

- a woman customer in a very long McDonald's line up in Quartzite Arizona. She kept us all laughing.
-a very helpful clerk in a gas station/convenience store in Parker Arizona.
-the waiter in a restaurant in Sedona Arizona
-car rental lady in Palm Springs who went out of her way to cheerfully resolve some difficulties.
-the 10 original members of The Greater Victoria Police Chorus (Canada) who are still singing and volunteering their time after 25 years.
-the funny and friendly owners of a Motel in Osoyoos B.C.
-fellow travelers from Nova Scotia who we met at breakfast in Bella Coola B.C.
-tour guide in Cuba.
-an older lady who approached me in a parking lot and asked if she could talk to me about my car as she was looking at getting a new one. She sat in my car and we chatted for half an hour.
-a young couple from England who were sharing their enjoyment of traveling the world.
-a woman who worked in small chilly General Store in the middle of nowhere along the road from Tonasket to Republic in Washington State. She loved the countryside so very much that talking to her was uplifting
-many clerks and customers in various Safeway stores.
-a friendly caring waitress in a hotel restaurant in Hollywood Florida
-numerous interesting and kind passengers I've met on cruise ships.
-a conductor on the charming tourist train in Kamloops, B.C.
-the very caring man who worked in the hospital where my father spent the last few months of his life.
-and of course, members of my family and my very dear friends who truly do make the world a nicer place to live.