TO HER, IT MAY HAVE BEEN A SMALL ACT.TO OUR FAMILY, IT WAS EVERYTHING.

For some reason, this story has been weighing heavily on my heart today.

When McKayla first left to live on the streets in 2023, it became a nightmare for our entire family.

Months passed without any contact.

There is no way to explain the terror of not knowing whether someone you love is alive. You lie awake wondering if they are cold, hungry, frightened, or hurt. Every time the phone rings, your heart stops. Every face in a crowd makes you look twice.

You search, you wait, and you pray for anything that will tell you they are still somewhere in this world.

Then one day, at exactly 1:24 in the afternoon, I received a message from a woman I had never met.

It read:

“Hi Laurie, I met your lovely granddaughter today. She was outside my office, lying alone on the grass in the park. I started talking to her, and she said she wanted to go home to you in Merritt. My office bought her an eBus ticket. Please let me know she arrived safely. She reminds me of my daughter.”

Her name was Lori.

When I messaged her back, she told me what had happened.

Lori worked near a park. On that very hot day, she stepped outside and noticed a young woman sleeping on the grass.

She could have walked past.

Instead, she walked over and asked if the young woman needed some water.

The young woman said yes.

Lori went inside, brought her water and then sat down beside her.

That young woman was my granddaughter.

As they talked, McKayla told Lori that she wanted to go to Merritt to see her grandma. Lori returned to her office, where she and her coworkers pooled their money and gave McKayla a printed out bus ticket.

McKayla was polite, grateful and thankful for their kindness.

Lori then went back to work. She never saw or heard from McKayla again that day.

But she could not stop thinking about her.

Because McKayla’s full name was needed for the bus ticket, Lori remembered that she had said her name was McKayla Jones. Lori searched for her on Facebook, found her photographs and then found a picture of McKayla with me.

From that photograph, she found my name.

And then she sent me the message that gave our family something we had been desperate to receive:

McKayla was alive.

Lori could have bought her the water and returned to work.

She could have helped with the bus ticket and decided she had done enough.

But she took one more step.

She searched for McKayla’s family because she understood that somewhere, someone might be waiting and wondering.

She was right.

We were.

That message did not erase our fear, and it did not end McKayla’s struggle. But for one precious moment, it allowed us to breathe. We knew she had been seen. We knew someone had spoken kindly to her. We knew she had been given water, compassion and a chance to come home.

Lori continued to message me afterward. She watched for McKayla near the homeless camps she passed and let me know that she had not seen her again.

She had only spent a short time with my granddaughter, yet she continued to carry concern for her.

That is why I am sharing this story today.

You never know what one small act of kindness may mean.

The person sleeping in the park is someone’s child.

The young woman sitting alone on the sidewalk may have a grandmother staring at her phone, begging for a message.

The person others have stopped seeing may have an entire family searching every face and fearing every phone call.

You may not be able to cure their addiction.

You may not be able to bring them home.

But you can offer water.

You can sit beside them.

You can ask their name.

You can let someone who loves them know they are alive.

And sometimes, what feels like a small kindness to you becomes the one thing that allows an entire family to breathe again.

Lori did not know McKayla’s whole story that day.

She only knew that the young woman on the grass reminded her of her own daughter.

So she treated McKayla the way she would hope someone would treat her child.

May we all remember that every person struggling on the street is somebody’s McKayla.

And may we all be someone’s Lori when the opportunity finds us.

McKayla Jean Jones — Forever 27