Kindness Week – Ottawa

“We each have the ability to create the community we want.  Make a conscious choice to contribute to a kind Ottawa.” – Rabbi Bulken

February 18^th – 25th is Kindness Week in Ottawa with charitable community events happening throughout the city.  Kindness Week was inspired by Rabbi Bulken when he posed an interesting idea to community leaders.  He suggested we would spend less time focusing on anti-bullying campaigns and issues of mistrust by effectively promoting kindness.  Rebecca from A Little Bit of Momsense  and @bitofmomsense is the resident blogger for Kindness Week.  She asked the Ottawa blogging community to join in the fun.

I recently met a group of transplanted Torontonians at a party.  We shared our experiences moving to Ottawa.  One couple complained that Ottawa is an unfriendly, uptight city. My husband and I, born and raised in Toronto, have a different opinion.  I want to share a kindness story that makes us forever O-town fans.  It is also an example of one many reasons we decided to stay and raise our family here.

Here goes…

If you had told me 10 years ago, we would leave our hometown and move to Ottawa, I would have laughed heartily, slapping my leg at that concept.  It was not as funny when my husband received an exciting job opportunity four hours away from Toronto.  He convinced me that uprooting our life with two little ones was the perfect time to step out of our comfort zone and have a family adventure.

He accepted the job and two weeks later left us to kick start the adventure. Six weeks later, I listed, sold our home, bought a home in a weekend (with hubby) and moved the kids, the cat and our life in boxes.  To say the move was challenging for me would be a big understatement.  Our families, friends and my heart were all in Toronto.

Fast-forward six months.  I was an unhappy and lonely gal.  Unable to find a family doctor and the capitalizing on any reason to go “home” I drove to Toronto for all our medical appointments.  A routine physical detected something worrisome with our youngest.  The next day we got that awful call “They found something.  You need to go to CHEO tonight.”  (We quickly learned CHEO stands for - Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.)  I remember we scrambled that night to find a fax machine to take the radiologists findings to the emergency department with us.  The nightmare began.

Unlike our amazing support systems we had in Toronto, we were still in the early stages of getting to know people in Ottawa. Poor S endured a barrage of tests, scans and consults with a variety of specialists.  We were shocked to discover it was our responsibility to find her a doctor in Ottawa, an integral part of her care team.  (Do not worry; this is not a post about the doctor shortage in communities across Canada.)

Bombarded with overwhelming medical information and fear, my husband and I took action. We started talking about S’s health scare and asked co-workers, neighbours, parents in the schoolyard for leads to find a good doctor.  Something amazing happened.

I returned home from picking my daughter up at school and the phone was ringing.  I managed to pick up before it went to the answering machine.  The friendly voice on the other end explained, “I’m M’s Mom, my son is in G’s class (our oldest daughter).  I heard about your situation and contacted our paediatrician.”  She went on to explain that he was not accepting patients but that conversation garnered another doctor’s name.  She called the new  number, spoke to the nurse who in turn conveyed our need to find a doctor.  This paediatrician agreed to take S as a patient!  I was speechless.  A stranger went to that trouble to help our daughter. It was kindness and much more.

After thanking her profusely, I hung up the phone and noticed the message light was flashing.  I pressed the button and heard “You have – 11 messages.” I started to listen and had to sit down. Every message was just like that call from Julie.  People called to offer numbers, childcare, suggestions and names of potential contacts willing to help. I called my husband at work to share their messages.  We could not believe the kindness coming from our community.  To this day I remember feeling grateful, scared and for the first time, not alone. 

Would you believe that within a week, after even more messages, we had a list of doctors to choose?  I am happy to report that S’s health scare is well behind us. Yeah!  She is in great health today and both our daughters are under the care (thanks to Mary) of an excellent paediatrician.  Not only did he agree to care for S, he offered to take her older sister as a patient too.  Another kindness.

Ottawa may be one of the coldest capital cities in the world but based on our experiences, I fiercely challenge anyone that suggests the people here are cold and unfriendly.  I think Kindness Week is as much about good deeds and thoughtful action as it is about being grateful for moments when we are the recipients of kindness. 

Another cool thing about kindness…it is highly contagious.