December was a hard month for me. At the opening of the month it was setting up to be a sleepy Christmas without much happening until my mother and I received word that my Aunt was ill and in the hospital without much time to live. She’d been diagnosed with Cancer earlier that year but her condition had worsened quickly and the Doctor’s didn’t think she’d made it until February. A very impromptu and rushed trip was made to visit and help her. She lived near Brisbane on the East Coast of Australia and I live on the East Coast of New Zealand. (entirely different countries with an ocean in between if you’re not particularly up-to-date on geography.) Despite the distance between me and my Aunt we were rather close and had become closer in recent months. She was my mother’s only sister and a good friend to us both.

The day we arrived she was conscious but in such high levels of pain she was constantly shifting to try to relieve it. Watching her condition worsen over the next couple of the days was such a helpless and hard thing to do. By the time we left the hospital that evening the Doctor’s modified their life prediction and said they didn’t believe she would make it till Christmas (a week away at that point). We spent every day at that week with her at the hospital.

She died in the evening of December 22nd. Needless to say it was a very grim Christmas Eve and Day.

Due to the suddenness of our trip the only tickets we’d been able to book for our flights had been night ones. When we returned home to New Zealand we had to leave our Motel at 3am on Christmas Night. We arrived home at about 9am in the morning New Zealand tome, utterly exhausted – both emotionally and physically. We just wanted to get our bags and get home where we could sleep and mourn and just catch up on the whirlwind week we’d lived (we were both still in a state of shock).

By the time we left the airport and were finally on the way home I was in tears due to an altercation with a person we’d hired to care for our car while we were away. I won’t go into the details but the way he treated us, going so far as to yell at my mother in the terminal. His attitude never changed after he found out we’d just returned from a funeral was so shockingly heartless and uncaring I still can’t believe it.

The entire situation reminded me once again that we never know what a person is going through and I want to encourage you Portrait readers to make a late new years resolution this year to show kindness and compassion to the people you encounter, to look a little deeper and to do always try to be the best person you can. You never know when even just a simple smile could brighten someone’s day or when a little patience could be the key ingredient to save from an unpleasant experience. You never know when you can change someone’s day or even their life for the better.

The List
These Portrait Peeps are making kindness their New Years resolution Submit your name below to be added to the list!

Kat
Liesje
Felice
Jes
kaye
Heather
Elle
Andrea
Danielle
Catherine

Glossary
Kindness: is the act of being kind or showing compassion.
Compassion: is the sympathy, pity or concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others.
Goodwill is a friendly or helpful feeling or attitude.

Playlist
Download this playlist of great songs that each in someway brings a point mentioned in this article. Outward impressions don’t tell you the real story and a little kindness goes a long way.