Eloise.

30 Days of Gratitude

Day One

Nov. 1, 2011

Have you ever met someone who’s so genuinely kind that you feel like a better person just hanging out on the same planet with them?

  My buddy Eloise is a gift, one I’m grateful for every single day. I want to be just like her when I grow up, but I can’t imagine even coming close.

  I could list a thousand reasons, but they all really come from the same place: her heart. It’s huge – so big that when you’re around her, you can’t see your own faults. She loves unconditionally, genuinely, and she’s happiest when the people around her are happy. So she works quietly to make sure they are.

  Eloise is 95. She worked full-time until a couple of years ago. She still drives, still does volunteer work, still bakes goodies for the “old folks” at the nursing home. She makes care packages for us when we’re sick, packs snack bags for my Girl Scouts when we go camping, puts together thousands and thousands of booklets for the My Community and Me program, sends crisp dollar bills to college students once a week so they can go buy a soda while they’re studying, remembers what you like and finds ways to make sure you get it. She has put people through college, bought cars for folks in need, helped people find jobs.

  She’s a devout Christian, and she is Jesus on Earth, the way Christians are supposed to be. If you’re sick, she’ll tend to you. If you’re hungry, she’ll feed you. If you need clothes or transportation, she’ll find it for you. She remembers birthdays and still sends thank you cards for the smallest of gestures.

I’m grateful that she’s my friend because she’s one of the kindest, strongest, most giving people I’ve ever known.

And she has a wicked sense of humor. Remind me to tell you sometime about the six-month practical joke she and her husband played on my family once … she got half the town involved, and it’s still one of my favorite stories of all time.

I want my daughter McKenzie to be just like her when she grows up, too. I suspect it’s a little too late for me – I’m already surly and stingy and too old to change. But McKenzie sees and hears and absorbs all that kindness and it makes my heart swell.

Eloise gives without any expectation of receiving. I’m not exaggerating. She’s a saint among humans.  She gives constantly. She has no ulterior motives. She could care less about “things,” about wealth or fame or status or attention … she likes people, and she likes to see others find happiness. (She also likes basketball and tennis and football and has started watching rugby, thanks to the wonders of modern television.)  

She also makes a mean Death by Chocolate cookie, and I’m so grateful for those that I can gain 3 pounds just thinking about them.

So on Day One of my 30 Days of Gratitude, I am thankful most of all for Eloise, for her unwavering faith in people, her unwavering faith in me.