Setting Examples

"Something was leaning against the back door and the car drove off and I walked over to see what it was, and it was a purse.
"I ran after the car waving the purse but the people didn't see me so I took it back to the 'Y' and opened it to look for a phone number. I couldn't find one, but then I found this wad of cash, of hundred dollar bills.
I never thought about keeping the money. It wasn't mine. I grew up going to church, I sang in the choir. And you don't keep something that doesn't belong to you.
"I don't know how you could."
Unnamed 62-year-old Calgarian

Keith Morison for National Post     “I never thought about keeping the money,” says Calgary woman, 62, shown in her new bachelor suite. “It wasn’t mine.”

This is a woman of character and of persevering values. She also happened, at the time she discovered the purse with its large sum of cash, homeless. Living in a homeless shelter operated by the YMCA in downtown Calgary. Who wouldn't, finding such a cache, reason to themselves that anyone carrying so much money with them and casually overlooking its security could doubtless afford the loss of that ten thousand.

Whereas she, with no possessions of her own, homeless and wholly dependent on the charity of others, could certainly make good use of all that cash. Obviously, from what transpired, such a scenario was the furthest thing from this woman's mind. It did not reflect her beliefs and her values and her thoughts of herself as a member of society. She saw to it that the money was returned to its rightful owner.

In gratitude they expressed their appreciation for her selfless sacrifice -- there are many who would describe it as just that, though she did not -- and gave her a reward of $500 to have and to hold for her own. A munificent enough award on the part of the grateful owners of the lost cash. And with their act of appreciation, others too added to this woman's future through their own appreciation of her honesty and modesty.

A local bank accepted a trust established in her name. And little by little donations came in over the period from October 2012 when the incident occurred, to a more recent date, where enough money was placed in the trust account to enable her to move from the shelter into a rent-subsidized seniors' complex.

"I think it says a lot about human nature and, personally, I think a lot of people -- had they found that money in the purse -- would have done exactly what I did", she commented, in appreciation for her good fortune. "I am just so thankful to the people that donated money on my behalf."

Perhaps her newfound good fortune will give her the confidence to find paid employment that will suit her temperament and her abilities and her experience, enabling her to find further pride in her life, become self-sufficient and completely independent.