Caring in Viral Times

Amid widespread indifference toward the most vulnerable, even small acts of kindness can make a difference.

Like her mother, who had worked as a nurse in a factory, my mother found her calling in caring for others. Between raising my sisters and me, she taught special education, ran a women’s crisis hotline, volunteered at the state prison to teach reading, worked at the YMCA—and that’s just what I can remember before I left for college. I fondly remember trailing behind her as we walked through the neighborhoods of Marion, Indiana, as she knocked on doors to convince factory workers to vote for George McGovern. I have memories of her kneeling beside old wooden desks encouraging her students at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. And though vague, I have this image of her at a YMCA picnic, surrounded by children vying for her attention—children with twisted bodies, bottle-thick glasses, leaning on metal crutches with braces on their legs. As a boy of seven, though I didn’t understand the emotions of jealousy and fear I felt toward these disabled children, I did learn that my mother was more than just my mother.

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