One day a stranger saw Kathleen with her headscarf on and gave her an envelope, she said something to the effect of “go have some fun, enjoy it.” It was a gift card to one of her favorite stores - TJ Maxx! She was so touched by the act of kindness from a stranger, it really stuck with her. 

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On Kathleen's birthday the year she died, my brother and I were anticipating the tremendous pain the day would bring and wanted to do something that might channel that energy into something positive. We wrote in some cards the story of what the day meant to us, shared our mom’s wise words along with her mantra “celebrate everything!” and packed the cards with gift cards to a local store. The experience helped us feel close to our mother, but we were also able to connect and see smiles on the faces of the people of our community, which felt like a gift in itself. We knew immediately we wanted to do something like this again. And so Kathleen’s Mission was born.

 

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