This is a weekly newsletter called Quiet Good Of The Week. It's about small, genuine acts of kindness out in the real world. Each issue has 5 short write-ups of real kindness news stories, plus one "kindness suggestion of the week." If someone forwarded you this email, sign up here. If you're already signed up, share it with others.
This week's quiet good idea
Do one kind thing this week and tell absolutely nobody about it. Not in the group chat, not as a casual mention at dinner, not in a caption. Just do it and carry it around quietly, like a small secret that belongs to you and whoever you helped.
Honestly? That part — the not telling — is kind of the whole experiment.
The man who whispers to babies
Dave Whitlow holds a premature infant at the NICU at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Photo: WTVR Richmond
Dave Whitlow is 73 years old, retired, and for the past eight years he has driven to the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU in Virginia every Tuesday and Thursday. He puts on a protective gown and gloves, leaves his phone outside the door, and holds premature infants — sometimes weighing less than two pounds — for a few hours at a stretch. Before he sets each one down, he whispers the same three things: Grow strong, grow smart, grow kind. He does this five or six babies per visit. Sometimes eight. He says it's the best job he's ever had.
Mr. Gil is 92, and the best thing at Chick-fil-A isn't on the menu
Gilbert "Mr. Gil" Martin, 92, welcomes guests at Chick-fil-A on Oleander Drive in Wilmington, NC. Photo: WRAL
Gilbert Martin — Mr. Gil to everyone at the Chick-fil-A on Oleander Drive in Wilmington, North Carolina — is 92 years old and has been showing up to welcome guests, clean tables, and restock sauces for the past six years. Before that, he was a greeter at Sam's Club for twelve years. He tried retiring. Got bored. "If you enjoy what you're doing, it's not work," he says. "I don't know what 92 is supposed to be, but I feel great." When he's not there, customers ask where he is. The main thing, he'll tell you, isn't the tables or the sauces. It's the people.
She didn't have to stop. She stopped.
Versluis Park in Plainfield Township, Michigan, where Mariza Mojica performed CPR on a two-year-old pulled from the water. Photo: WOOD TV8
Last Sunday at Versluis Park in Plainfield Township, Michigan, a two-year-old girl was pulled from the water unresponsive. Mariza Mojica was nearby, saw the panicked mother, and just — went. She performed mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions until the girl came back, about two minutes before any emergency responders arrived. Mojica is CPR-certified through her job. She'd never used it outside of a training room before. "I just thought about my own kids," she said afterward. "I would want somebody to do it for me." The girl recovered and has since been discharged from the hospital.
Two strangers, one fender bender, and a hug
Security camera footage captures two drivers embracing after a collision in Camboriú, Brazil. Photo: Jovem Pan News
On a street in Camboriú, Brazil, one driver rear-ended another. A nearby security camera caught what happened next: instead of the usual argument, one driver saw that the other was visibly shaken and put his arms around him. That was it. A neighbor found the footage while checking their camera and shared it. No names were disclosed, no one was trying to make a point. It just happened to be recorded. "Even in stressful situations," one viewer wrote, "people still have the ability to choose kindness over conflict." Yes. That.
Six firefighters, one very tired dog, and 4.5 hours on a mountain
Volunteers from the Waterville Volunteer Fire Company carry Sable in a rescue basket down the Golden Eagle Trail in Pennsylvania. Photo: Waterville Volunteer Fire Company
A hiker's 100-pound senior dog named Sable ran out of steam about two miles from the trailhead on the Golden Eagle Trail in Pennsylvania's Tiadaghton State Forest. Couldn't walk another step. The hiker flagged down help, and six volunteer firefighters from the Waterville Volunteer Fire Company responded. They loaded Sable into a rescue basket and carried her down the mountain, rotating carriers, stopping to give her water, taking 4.5 hours to get back to the trailhead. "We do not just care about humans," said Tiffany Young, a 30-year veteran of the company. "We care about our furry friends." Sable is expected to make a full recovery.
Five people who just did the thing this week. See you next time.
— Matt