Have you read the story of Mark Elkund? Titled “All the Good Things,” it has circulated in publications such as Reader’s Digest (1991), Chicken Soup for the Soul (1993), and has also been a popularly forwarded e-mail.
In the 1960s, Mark was a junior high school student at St. Mary’s School in Morris, Minnesota. One day, his teacher, Sr. Helen Mrosla, asked her students to write each classmate’s name on a piece of paper, and under those names, the nicest thing they could say about them. Sr. Helen collated the responses, and returned to each student a list of the kind remarks written specifically about them.
Mark served and later died in Vietnam. When Sr. Helen attended Mark’s funeral, his parents showed her what he had carried in his wallet since junior high – his classmate’s list of kind remarks. She discovered that many of her other students had held onto their lists for years and years, too.
At Beyond the Trees, we’re working on several books right now that remind me of this story. One of our specialties is Tribute Books; typically these are surprise gifts for birthdays, anniversaries or retirements. The person (or people) who sponsor the book give us names and addresses of the recipient’s families and friends. We invite the participants (via email or snail mail) to share a message and photo about the recipient, and then we organize the material and publish the book.
The messages that cross our desk about people we don’t know never fail to move us. The thanks of a young coworker to an older mentor, the love of a sister, the admiration of a friend or neighbor, the memory of a kind word or deed at just the right time. All words that are often left unsaid until it is too late. Can you imagine receiving a collection of messages from dozens of people that shares how you impacted their lives? In every case the recipients are deeply touched by their Tribute Books, often to the point of tears.
We’d like to help you create a Tribute Book for your loved one, and we guarantee it will be one of their favorite presents. But quite honestly, you can also write or call someone you care about to tell them what they mean to you – now. As Sr. Helen wrote: “…we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.”
- Jennifer Sauers