“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
– Bob Kerrey
It was 2020. The year of the deadly pandemic. We, a family of 4, one of whom was a newborn had moved to Naperville, a popular suburb of Chicago, right before the shutdown. Within 7 months, we decided we were ready to settle down in District 204.
The process of buying a home was quite overwhelming and so was the task of settling in.
During Thanksgiving of 2020, we moved to Oakhurst North, a community we fell in love with during our short lived house hunting process.
We were still in the middle of a pandemic, so we didn’t meet any neighbors. We couldn’t. It wasn’t safe.
Then the winter storm hit.
We were new homeowners and with a baby and a kid to take care of, couldn’t fathom our homeowner responsibilities.
That night, I put the kids to bed and started researching “What should a homeowner do during snowstorm”, as I saw our a neighborhood embrace a thick blanket of snow.
In the morning, my husband, PK, with a worried face tells me “We are supposed to clean our walkway!”
We were not prepared. Ours is a corner lot with a lot of walkway to clean. We had no clue what to do.
Subsequently, my husband ordered a shovel with same day delivery.
When we went out to clean our walkway and conduct our duty as responsible residents, we were surprised. A considerable part of it was already cleared of snow.
We came back and discussed possible suspects.
May be the City did it. If they did, why didn’t they clean the other half?
May be some kid did it. If they did, why didn’t they come take their dues?
We couldn’t come to a conclusion and moved on.
Then it happened again. And again.
By this time we had bought a snowblower and were ready for any kind of snowstorm. If only we would get the chance. Naturally, we were curious. Who was that person cleaning our walkway without even telling us?
So I made a resolve to find out and patiently waited for the next snowstorm to arrive. I didn’t have to wait for too long. The winter of 2021 graced us with a lot of them.
The morning after another snowstorm, I stood in my living room, eyes all wide looking out for any sign of our mystery helper.
After a couple of minutes, I saw him. A man trying to clear out the snow. I didn’t recognize him. I saw him clean the neighbor’s walkway too. And then he entered their house.
I quickly realized it was his home. I also realized he is the kind, helpful person we were looking for all this time.
The Mystery Helper was our next door neighbor. We couldn’t meet as we hadn’t introduced ourselves to anyone. It was the pandemic.
May be they knew we moved recently and wanted to help us. May be they knew what a struggle it is to clean the snow, especially the first year. I don’t know why they did it. But I do know it was an unexpected act of kindness.
We did meet them a couple months later. We thanked them profusely for their kind gesture.
They confused us, but in a good way.
They touched us with a simple gesture.
They made us proud of having chosen this community.
We were overwhelmed with gratitude.
A simple family trying to build their life in a new city felt welcomed and cared for.
This is the story of our first snow season at the new home in this beautiful community, one we will never forget.