National Adult Literacy Database

November 14, 2005

This story was written by Ron Higgins, from Truro, Nova Scotia. Ron is enrolled in literacy classes at Colchester Adult Learning Association (CALA).

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One Sunny Afternoon

by Ron Higgins

One sunny afternoon an elderly lady by the name of Betty decided to take a walk to her favorite park. To feed the ducks in the pond with crumbs of bread she saved. She would make sure each duck got at least a couple crumbs of bread before she was ready to leave the park.

But one sunny afternoon, she came to her favorite park with a bag of bread to feed to the ducks. But this time there were no ducks in the pond to feed. Feeling a little down she said, "What will I do with all of these bread crumbs?"

Behind her she heard a very gentle and kind voice say, "You can feed them to the ducks on my farm, if you like?" Betty turned around and saw an elderly man who introduced himself, and his name was, Ralph.

She looked at him and smiled, then said "I would like that very much". They sat, talked and they became very good friends over the years to come. Since then they would visit and feed the ducks together on "one sunny afternoon."

The moral of this story is that, "A mere act of kindness is what truly makes us Human."