The week that our membership was due to expire at The Indy Children’s Museum, the girls also had a break from school and I decided to treat them to a trip there. One of the first things we usually do is go up to the carousel so we can get a ride or two in before continuing our visit. Several of the horses are immobile so younger kids can ride without being jostled too much but the unfortunate downside is that more often than not, a kid that ends up on an immobile carousel horse isn’t particularly happy about it. It’s a carousel, after all! As luck would have it, the girls ended up at the very front of the line and were guaranteed their first pick of horses. Right behind them was a girl, who was obviously very excited about the prospect of going on a carousel because, as she told us, it would be her very first time. She’d budged her way to the front, leaving her dad far behind because he couldn’t walk very well due to crutches. When we were let on my kids all found a horse and immediately jumped on (it’s all that family training time, I tell you). Right before the ride was about to start though, the girl who’d run onto the ride right after my kids was still wandering the carousel, very close to tears at being unable to find a horse that went up and down. Without a second thought, Evelyn called her over, slid off her carousel horse–the one she’d picked first and loved the most–and offered it to the girl, so her first carousel ride would be a memorable one. I helped the girl onto Evelyn’s horse, choking back a few tears of my own while the girl waved to her father on the sidelines. Evelyn quietly climbed onto one of the horses that didn’t move and gave me a shy smile. I think she understood the magnitude of what she’d done for the girl.
 |
| Forever the attentive big sister. |
It was a small, perhaps not world-changing event but to me, Evelyn taught me a memorable lesson on charity. It’s who she is and I’m so happy to have her shining example to remind me that even the simplest act of service can make all the difference.
