How Canadians showed acts of kindness and came together in 2023
As 2023 comes to an end, we’d like to leave it on a positive note with some of our favourite heartwarming stories and acts of kindness from the past year.
From a flight attendant comforting a nervous flyer to a thoughtful note left behind on a cake, many small acts of kindness have had major impacts on the lives of Canadians.
Here are a few stories we covered this year where Canadians showed kindness and came together in 2023.
Family turns their heartbreak into a birthday gift for someone else
Morgan Haigler/Facebook
A Calgary family turned heartbreak into a heartwarming act of kindness that helped someone celebrate their birthday.
Morgan Haigler shared the tear-jerking story on her Facebook back in March.
“In early celebration of my sister’s birthday, I had ordered her a cake at Marble Slab Royal Oak. On the day I was expected to pick it up, I had my husband swing by instead.”
She said when her husband came home, they saw an unexpected note.
“After he came back with the cake he had asked if I had included a message on the cake pertaining to losing a son. At first, I thought that was odd and that maybe we received the wrong cake or the additional message may have been intended for someone else. Upon reading it, I realized we had the right cake and that the message was intended for us.”
The note read: “Our son passed away… Today [February 27] is his birthday. Because we can’t buy him a cake, we bought yours. Happy Birthday.”
Haigler shared a message for the strangers who provided them with the amazing gift.
“For the beautiful strangers who touched our hearts, if you are out there reading this message, we would still love to acknowledge and reciprocate your good deed with our gift. If not, we will keep it as a warm reminder that good people still exist in our world.”
Canadian boy on the autism spectrum has tons of kids come to his birthday party
David Chen/Submitted | 365 Fundays/Website
In 2022, only one classmate showed up at Max’s birthday party, but in 2023, the seven-year-old had a big celebration with a lot of friends.
This comes after Max’s father, David Chen, posted about the heartbreaking story last year, stating that only one out of 19 classmates showed up to the Metro Vancouver boy’s birthday.
Chen shared that Max is on the autism spectrum and received hundreds of responses from people sharing their own struggles with being accepted.
This year’s party was much different for Max.
On top of sending invitations to his entire class again, his family invited dozens of new friends who have something in common with Max, children who are also on the autism spectrum.
Canadian gym-goer’s heartwarming story
In July, a Metro Vancouver gym-goer shared a touching story about how fellow athletes supported her when a male worker came into the women’s only area of the gym.
Sana Zehra, a Muslim woman who wears a hijab, is a regular at Club16 Trevor Linden Fitness’ South Surrey location. She entered the women-only area and took her hijab off, switching to her gym attire — a tank top and leggings.
Zehra was on the treadmill when a woman rushed over and tried to get her attention. The woman explained that she’d seen Zehra walk in with her hijab and wanted to make sure she’d heard the announcement that a male worker was coming in.
Zehra hadn’t heard — she was listening to a podcast through her headphones.
“We’re not from the same religious beliefs. But they knew. And they were so aware and they respected my religion,” Zehra told Daily Hive. “I told the woman, ‘I’m really thankful and I don’t have words to explain how good I feel for the fact you actually stopped working out and came to me.’”
Air Canada flight attendant comforts woman through panic attack
Overnight flight from YYZ to Zurich. Woman in front of us – full panic attack before we started to taxi.
Flight attendant sat with her for hours. Held her hand, told her exactly what was happening. (“We’re turning left”). I didn’t get her name but she deserves a 🏅 @AirCanada pic.twitter.com/9ENEorxTcS
— Celeste Leander (@cleander) July 8, 2023
A flight attendant aboard an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Zurich showed an act of kindness that ended up going viral in July.
According to a viral tweet, one woman on the flight was experiencing a full panic attack before the aircraft started to taxi.
The flight attendant is pictured sitting beside the passenger, holding her hand and attentively listening to her concerns.
According to the tweet, the flight attendant graciously and patiently sat with the woman for hours, comforted her, and explained all the motions of the plane, making her flight experience one to remember.
Canadian restaurant goes viral for free meal initiative
The Nelson Street Pub/Facebook
In November, a Canadian restaurant went viral for its heartwarming initiative that ensures all of its patrons have a warm meal, even if they can’t afford to buy one themselves. The Nelson Street Pub, located in Pembroke, Ontario, posted on its Facebook page to let folks know about its new pay-it-forward policy.
The concept is simple: any patron who would like to pre-pay for someone else’s meal can let a server know, and a bill for that meal will be printed and posted on a wall at the front of the restaurant.
If there is a customer in need or who can’t afford to pay for a meal, they can take one of the pre-paid bills, present it to their server, and the kitchen will prepare their order with “no questions asked,” wrote the eatery.
Within a day, the pub posted an update that it had already collected several receipts for free meals, and news of their initiative has since inspired other restaurants across Canada and around the world to do the same.
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