Kindness When You Least Expect It
I spent last week in court, testifying at a trial.
The whole experience was very stressful, but there were two instances of kindness that really stood out.
To start off with, this was the first time I had been in court to testify for any reason, and I was nervous about that.
Add to that that the original situation was stressful to begin with, and I knew I was going to have to deal with the defendant's squirrely attorney coming up with every lie in the book in order to get his client off, and it made for a not too pleasant situation.
Before the trial started, I made it a point to call my boyfriend.
I was hoping to get in touch with him, but wasn't sure I would because his schedule has been extremely packed with work for the last couple of months.
He spends a lot of time out of town, and he spends all hours cooped up in data centers, so although I hoped for a reply to my voice mail, I wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't replied until much later, or not at all.
Not only did he reply, but it was prompt, and he made it a point to inject his urual reassurance and confidence into the message.
That made quite a difference in my day, and it made it a lot easier to go ahead.
The next bit of kindness involves the detective who investigated the case we were now trying.
He had to testify as well, and I didn't expect that he'd do much more than that.
But he made it a point to let me know that I did well on the stand, and not to worry about the attorney grasping at straws, and he also made it a point to congradulate me after the guilty verdict was handed down three days later.
He was very diligent when investigating the case, and he made it a point to keep me informed.
For that, and his kindness last week, I'm extremely grateful.