WE LITTLE KNOW WHAT WE DO

Once upon a time...

   a little princess, Amanda Scarpinati, was badly burned by a steam humidifier.

A photo of a loving nurse holding her was published in the hospital’s annual report in 1977.

 The woman in the nearly 40-year-old photo remained a mystery.

 After years of surgeries, Scarpinati saw the image of the nurse as a reminder of the soothing care she received as an infant.

 “Growing up as a child, disfigured by the burns, I was bullied and picked on, tormented,” Scarpinati, now 38, told the AP. 

“I’d look at those pictures and talk to her, even though I didn’t know who she was. 

I took comfort looking at this woman who seemed so sincere in caring for me.”

 After decades of searching for the nurse, Amanda finally found her using Facebook.
  
Scarpinati wrote on Facebook:

 “In a million years I would have never guessed this would grow to be as big as it is 

or that I would in fact be able to put a name to the face that I looked at for all these years.

 She’s just as sweet and caring as I could have imagined her to be.”

LESSON:

We never know what ripples of healing will be started by a small act of kindness on our part. 

{Thanks to Carl Howard/Albany Medical Center/AP/the Washington Post/Facebook}