A before Christmas gift

This'll be short. But, it's too good not to share.

This morning while I was aggravated because I was riding up and down the halls waiting to get set up on my desktop PC. A woman, a bit younger than me, was standing in the hallway. A nurse aide was in cleaning up her dad, who's in a private room down the hall.

His daughter said he was recuperating well. Then, one night, he decided to get up by himself. He fell and broke his hip and one arm. Now, he's in bed and he'll be here longer than anyone expected.

From the look on the daughter's face she seemed to be as frustrated as I was. She could have taken a seat in the living room for a few minutes. Instead, she stood outside, across the hallway waiting for the aide to finish.

I came up to her and started talking about how nice the weather has been, with sunny and warmer temperatures for late November. After that, we talked for a while.

Then, I went on my way. I was gone for a while at lunch.

When I next went up the hallway, I saw the daughter sitting in her dad's room. She'd put up some Christmas decorations. She'd already told me her dad was upset because he'll spend Christmas in the nursing home. So, she was trying to make it festive.

I stopped to tell her how nice the decorations looked. While there were no lights on the trees, one had red and silver balls stacked in the shape of a tree. The other was a green artificial tree decorated with multicolored ornaments.

I told the daughter how nice everything looked. I shared I'd given my little tree away before moving to this facility.

Later, while  I was working away on my desktop, that man's daughter walked in beside me and sat a small, decorated tree, without lights on my table. That man's daughter had put one together for me. I said I didn't say her dad's room looked nice – so I'd get a tree. But I thanked her for her kindness. She put the tree beside the TV on the chest of drawers.

Not long after, another woman, perhaps the daughter's relative, or maybe not, came in and showed me magnetic Christmas tiles that could be put on my door. She offered to put them other places, but I told her on the door would be fine.

I received a nice surprise out of the kindness of others.