“I don’t know if it’s OK to nominate my mom, but I’m going to,” he wrote.
“She adopted me and my little brother when we were preschool age. We were both starving in Mexico, and taken to an orphanage. Now we are Americans with jobs. We both have disabilities because we didn’t get enough food when we were young, but my mom helped us to be independent adults. Now I am 31 and my brother is 28. Also, my mom has been a teacher in Brea for over 30 years. She has taught over 1,000 children in her lifetime. She works a lot of hours and spends weekends at special events for her students. We even go on trips sometimes with her, like last year, we went to Sacramento and her students competed in National History Day competition.
“She loves us. She loves her students. She loves her community and she is the kindest person I know. Thank you and God bless.”
That was Jose Berrner nominating his mom, Jill Berrner, for a Fourth District Kindness Award. It made me weepy. These awards are a delightful fall ritual from Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee’s office, a beacon in a nutty world that seems ablaze with conflict and cruelty, celebrating the gentle milk of human kindness.
The Kindness Awards honor seven big-hearted people from Chaffee’s northern Orange County district — Rosa Dominguez of Anaheim, Gianna Mulkay of Brea, Ellie Westenhaver of Buena Park, Sandra White of Fullerton, Sara Ursenbach of La Habra, Joe Rasic of Placentia and Maria Lorena Flores of Stanton.
Jo-Anne Matsuba, chair of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, won the Honorary Kindness Award.
There are scores of worthy nominees beyond these winners. Reading through the nominations has become a holiday season highlight for this humble scribe, a light in the darkness, evidence that so many are quietly making the world a better place, and it’s not completely delusional to hope for the future.
Today, as we take stock on Thanksgiving Day, we share some of their stories….
Read the full article here
