by Corinne Bernat

Created on: May 06, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

To have someone attempt to raise the quality of another's life without strings attached is extraordinary. We have become familiar with deceptive offers in our conditional world. We've learned to read fine print, clauses and even between the lines in an effort to save ourselves from yet another sham.

Consequently, it's understandable why anyone might question the purity of benevolence. Having experienced authentic compassion first hand, I hope to put any suspicion to rest.

My benefactor, I'll name him H, was my friend first. Our friendship evolved within thousands of emails over a nine year period. We have never met face to face after all these years. He lives in England and I live in Canada. Despite our positions on the globe, we know each other as well as we know our own families, maybe better, and I consider him my brother. I have no doubt that it was fate that brought us together through technology. I am blessed to have such an innately powerful friend in my life. We confide and support each other in joy and despair, exchanging philosophies along the way. He has taken on the role of benefactor, providing me the opportunity to manage projects designed to bring relief and joy to members of my community.

It all began in 2005 when I was on leave from work due to an undiagnosed illness. My situation left me worthless and hopeless. I was in need of something, anything.

Although the email exchanges between H and I lifted my spirits, my dismal conditions continued to cause me worry. As a result, I became increasingly depressed and was becoming self destructive. I confided in H and then, one day, I received an invitation from him to help others. He asked me to find ten lonely seniors and take them on an outing and all expenses would be paid by him.

I was stunned by the extremely thoughtful gesture and I accepted the offer, completely unaware of the profound effect it would have on shifting my priorities.

I spent the following weeks working on the project and received all of the support that I needed to coordinate the day. My calls to companies and organizations were met with giddy disbelief, enthusiasm, delight and encouragement as I explained our mission to combat loneliness, if just for a day. The positivity of it all was infectious and I suspect I felt the benefits more than anyone possibly could.

The day out was a wonderful success and everyone involved was uplifted, especially me.

I felt incredibly worthwhile coordinating the outing that was so thoughtfully and selflessly encouraged by H. The participants were grateful and enthusiastically signed the thank you card that was to be sent across the ocean to our benefactor.

I continued to marvel at the trickle effect that began with H's thoughtful gesture toward me and flowed onto all of the participants. As I shared with him the details, H was so deeply moved by the effort that he offered me the opportunity to carry on for as long as humanly possible.

Almost four years later, H continues to support the effort to bring relief in a number of ways to as many people as possible. Such extraordinary selflessness is the heart and soul of benevolence. Whether or not the motives are wholesome enough are up to the potential recipients to decide. If we are in doubt we might keep in mind that sometimes the reasons behind acts of kindness are less complicated than we my think.

That is certainly the case with H. When asked why he is helping strangers half-way around the world, his simple answer embodies benevolence:

"Sometimes things just feel like the right thing to do."

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