In case you haven’t seen or heard this story, it bears a retell. In Clearlake, California, David Richmond had a massive heart attack at 65. As Naomi Richmond, 63, followed the ambulance to the hospital, thieves broke in and ransacked her house (i.e. robbed it). David Richmond died in the ambulance, so after dealing with that process, she also had to deal with the fact that her house had been burglarized. Hell of a 1-2 punch on a given day, no? Naomi Richmond maybe did the greatest thing anyone could ever do in this horrible situation. She wrote the following letter to the thieves:
To whomever this may concern:
Thank you to whomever it was that was so thoughtful that they found it necessary to kick in my front door and rob my house when I left to follow the ambulance to the hospital when my husband David died last night.
You have saved me from having to come home and look at David’s laptop and his guns, his prescriptions, all my jewelry, which included the ring that David’s mom gave me right before she died.
But, most of all thank you so very, very much for taking David’s pillowcase off of his pillow. I know you needed it to carry the drawers from my jewelry box so you wouldn’t drop them and damage them.
With that single act of kindness displayed by you, you saved me from ever having to lie in our bed and be able to still smell David’s scent while I slept. So, thank you so much for thinking of me and removing the things from my house that you knew would remind me of him.
Sincerely,
Mrs. David Richmond (Naomi)
Sarcasm to the hilt, but an absolutely amazing response in such a terrible time for a person.
If you want to pay it forward a little, here’s a fundraising page to help with David’s burial costs.
When amazingly horrible things happen to families, it’s always really uplifting — in a weird way — to see that the human spirit can triumph (to an extent) in times like those.
