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Show RCoVeiiSto'cy' Photos by Randy Jamski When American Profile asked readers to about acts of kindness tdl us both given and received mailbox overflowed with examples our of the generous human spirit. Jeffrey Fluck of KnightdaU, N.C., said it best in bis Utter, which appears below: There are truly compassionate peopU in the world, and we must strive to pass it on to others. " James nearly 25 yean ago got cough when he became a single father of two a son. Pock and beans on toast daughter and was not an unusual meal, he says, "hue we worked together to make the best of the situation. Christmas was coming, but the Iitrie family knew they would have to make do with what they had. All that changed with a trip to the mailbox one November day. Our mailbox contained an envelope with no stamp and just the name, 'Jim.' Inside were five $20 bills wrapped in tablet paper and no hint of who had lefi it these. I was speechless. So much money at this time was mote than I could understand," says Haas, now of Hobart, Okla. (pop. 3,997). The next month, he again found an identical envelope withfive $20 bills. Although I would like to know the identity of the giver or given, I have had the mystery and gratitude to hold on to for all these yean," Haas says. The experience, too, has made me mote grnrmus in helping others now that time has relieved the burden of many yean ago. Flower power of 648) was in her Maggie Graney Avon, Ind., (pop. eady 20s and living on her own for the first time and Pag6 American Profile a bit homesick. One day, during her lunch break frotna family-owne- d department score in California, she sat on a patch of gnss across from the store. "I must have been looldqg very sad and lonely, because when I looked up, a gentleman I did not know was walking toward me with a bouquet of flowen he had flower csrt just a block purchased from the street-sid-e feeling Mailbox magic for Times L Haas 1 ' away," she says. He handed them to me without saying a word, then turned and walked away," she says. I never saw the man again, but the kindness he showed toward me when I needed it most still touches me 20 years later and will never be forgotten." the load Shouldering Fluck of Jeffrey Knighcdale, N.C, (pop. 5,958) traveled to Lubbock, Tens, last year to help his ton, Jonathan, get settled into his new home. After buying a it sleeper sofa from a department store, they wouldn't fit into die etc. We set in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do," Fluck says. Johnny Perez, pastor of die Church of the Blessed in Lubbock, who had parked his pickup nuck nearby, noticed the soft dilemma and offered to transport it for them. We accepted his generosity, and he even helped load and unload the sofa. I tried to pay him some-- I |