“PAID IN FULL WITH ONE GLASS OF MILK”

While clearing out my inbox recently, I came across a ton of old forwards that I had saved for some reason. Some of them appear trite at first glance. Syrupy sweet, the kind that cue a roll of the eyes. But I saw why they linger in my inbox.

Take the one about Dr Howard Kelly, one of the four founding doctors of Johns Hopkins, and a distinguished physician who established the department of gynecology and obstetrics there in 1895.

In the story, he’s a little boy going door-to-door to sell goods to pay his way through school. Hungry and broke, he knocked at a door and asked for a glass of water. A young woman brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked how much he owed her.

“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept money for a kindness.”

Many years later that same young woman was critically ill and the local doctors sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.

Dr Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, he went to her room and recognized her at once.

He was able to cure the woman, but she opened the hospital bill with trepidation, certain it would take the rest of her life to pay it all. Then she saw these words on the bill:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk.”

(Signed) Dr Howard Kelly.

 So, is the feel-good story true or false? Happily for those of us who believe in miracles, mostly true.

According to a fact-check by Barbara Mikkelson, Howard Kelly wasn’t a destitute young scholar peddling goods who was rescued from overwhelming hunger by a fortuitous glass of milk. He was a thirsty hiker out on one of his many rambles about the countryside to study wildlife. He asked for water at a farmhouse and was instead given milk. The girl who gave him milk did come to him as a patient years later, but likely not because she was dying or because her condition was unusual. Dr  Kelly did write off her bill, but he did so with three of every four patients he treated.

For me, that just adds to the magic of the story.

It reminds me of other stories – newspaper reports or witnessed by friends in some cases – of random acts of kindness.

Like the one about the lady who walked up to a homeless person on a subway platform and gave him a gift for Christmas.

It was obvious from his reaction that they were strangers to each other, but she took the time and made the effort to recognize a human being underneath the rags.

Heroes of our times.

Merry Christmas! And may you have stories of your own to share when you gather with family and friends.

Shagorika Easwar