Touching One's Heart Is Seeing A Loving Mother With Her Babies

"I remember you from last year," a friendly voice called out as I was walking down a path in Stanley Park in Vancouver. As I turned to look, a lovely woman smiled and added, "You and your wife come up here each year from Santa Monica."

"Los Angeles," I replied with a big grin, "And I remember you as well." Next to her and adjacent to a two baby stroller parked on the grass, were two adorable little children, Chloe 3 and Beau, not quite 2, running around together, their little faces filled with joy. This enthusiastic mom was Anna, whom my wife Anne and I met last year when her babies were even tinier.

Anna is married to Paul, a civil engineer, and is Slovakian by background, speaks excellent English and was a flight attendant for 12 years, part of which she flew on humanitarian missions for NATO. Among the many places she has been include being posted in the Ivory Coast, in Chad and in Libya and other male dominated, poorly educated societies.

She has seen hunger so dire, families would die without the gift of food from the West. Yet that food at times was turned down by village elders because it was from the West. As a result, there have been mass burials, which included children.

It is hard to imagine any village elder allowing this to happen, yet it does happen. Anna feels the answer is education, for with education people would become far more productive, eliminating the food shortages they often face and they would make wiser choices in how they and their families live their lives and in choosing more compassionate village elders.

My heart ached for those who live in such poverty, but I felt hope that nations and the United Nations would invest greater funding in education and in the meantime continuing to feed as many of those in dire need as possible.

But on this beautiful Vancouver day, I saw Anna holding Beau in her arms, giving him kisses, as she kept saying, "I love you" and he smiled back at her. And little Chloe slept in her stroller, both children safe, healthy, well fed and happy, nurtured by their mother's love and devotion. Looking at this loving sight touched my heart and made it feel good to be alive, and it is a joy now to share with you dear reader.

Dick