We, as a global community, are experiencing a third surge of coronavirus cases. The surge is especially bad in the U.S.  The following bulleted items are news headlines from today:

Last Friday, my sister Toni went to the hospital with fever and congestion and was diagnosed with Covid-19. She lives in Valparaiso, Indiana and is at St. Mary’s Hospital in Hobart, Indiana.
At the time of this writing, Toni is struggling with her breathing. She was not able to maintain saturation of oxygen in her lungs yesterday so doctors put her on a BiPAP to get more oxygen into her lungs.  She’s on anti-anxiety medication, IV steroids, antiviral Remdesivir, and is receiving a plasma with Covid antibodies.
The hardest part of this is that she is alone, in isolation, at the hospital. She does have a great medical staff. Toni is a special needs adult. She is used to having lots of much-needed support. I did speak to her once and, though she was sedated and mumbling, she was able to express her thoughts. She is scared and agitated. She hates the machines that go “Beep Beep Beep”. She hates the tubes in her nose. She hates the IV tubing (steroids) and she wants to go home.  My eldest sister Nora, who lives nearby and is Toni’s legal guardian, asked the doctors if she could suit up, wear a mask and shield in order to be with Toni, but absolutely no visitors are allowed in the isolation rooms of Covid-19 patients.
Nora just arranged for a priest to pray outside of Toni’s door today.
The doctors explained that perhaps the worst part of Covid is that the patient has to be alone.

As Lennon says, “Love is the answer!” (Toni in the red dress). We grew up with so much love!! Here are my sisters with Aunt Lily and Uncle Sam. (PS…Franny is not yet born when this photo was taken.)

The good news is that Toni is being flooded with prayers, positive thoughts, light, and love from our vast network of family members, relatives, friends. And the Gallo Sister Front Line Team got to talk to her today, virtually , using one of the medical team’s iPads.  I missed the call by minutes because I had an appointment with my eye doctor. Nora and Zina sang Toni’s favorite church song, “Jesus Loves You.” (When she’s healthy, she belts this out at church!) She opened her eyes and they could hear her making an effort to sing under the BiPAP mask! (Thank you, Zina, for thinking of this! You are brilliant!) 
The title of this blog post is Little Acts of Kindness.  Did you know that today is WORLD KINDNESS DAY? When I spoke to Toni a few days ago, she told me that one of the nurses brought her a Teddy Bear! Toni loves Teddy Bears! Who doesn’t?  She was holding the bear as she spoke to me. I wonder if Nurse Michelle knew just exactly what her random act of kindness meant for Toni.
It’s these little acts of kindness that make a difference in a world that needs more light and more love! 
I dedicated yesterday’s yoga sessions to Random Acts of Kindness and told the yoga community how this simple act of giving a Teddy Bear to Toni gave her so much comfort.  One of my students sent me this story about a little act of kindness. She gave me permission to share it with you: 
Your class today made me want share how profound little acts of kindness could be.
 
As you know I worked at Behavioral Health Center for many years. Although I did not do clinical work and did not see patients, I tried to learn the names of patients and greet them when I saw them. I always called them by their surnames to show respect for them. We had a patient lounge where patients could get coffee, tea, and snacks that I would visit several times a day to get hot water for my tea and would talk to patients there.  
One day a patient who was volunteering in the lounge approached me said, “I want to thank you for saving my life.” I was confused as I had done no such thing and thanked him and said I didn’t see how that was possible and that I didn’t think I could take credit for saving his life. He said that he had been sliding in and out of addiction and was going in and of jail, but when I greeted him by name when I saw him and called him Mr X it made him feel good. He said that if a manager could take the time to greet him and learn his name, he must be important and maybe his life was worth living.  That got him started addressing his drug problem and changing his life so that he was no longer suicidal and was in stable housing.
In this case just saying a few words to a person had a very profound effect on him. Amazing isn’t it?

Amazing, indeed!

Perform Little Random Acts of Kindness for World Kindness Day, November 13, 2020

So much LOVE. (PS Franny Gallo not yet born)…sisters and cousins with my mom and Aunt Lily. This is one of my favorite photos!