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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Abigail Radnor

12 little acts of kindness: what friends and strangers did for each other in their hour of need

Illustration of two girls standing with their backs to us, one is touching the other's back and light and sparkles are coming out.

I have a fond memory from a Monday a month or so after my mum died. My friend Deb’s son, then three years old, was playing hide and seek with my daughter of the same age. He picked a delightfully impressive hiding place, wedging himself into the bottom of my floor-to-ceiling shelves. He was wearing camouflage print and against the usual domestic detritus on our shelves proved genuinely difficult to find. Quite a feat.

I properly laughed, for which I was truly grateful. It had been quite a while since I had laughed like that. Deb was there to deliver dinner for us all; something she had promised to do a few days earlier. A family meal, every Monday, for the next few weeks.

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