Alex Haley, the author of Roots tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a simple act of kindness:

He was the youngest of eight children, living as a sharecropping family.  Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops.  After several years of schooling the family pressed each child into service on the farm. Fortunately the boy's mother intervened on behalf of her child and was allowed to stay in school. When he was ready for college he chose the Lane Institute, working as many as four jobs in addition to full-time studies.  It was all physically and emotionally wearing.

He worked for a summer as a porter on a train and happened to meet a man early in the morning who couldn't sleep and wanted to talk.  This man was impressed by a black porter working to earn money for college and tipped him the unimaginable sum of five dollars.

By the end of the summer Mr. Haley had to decide whether to convert his summer earnings into a mule and begin to sharecrop, or to stretch to complete his last year at school.  He took the risk of competing college.

Alex Haley tells us what happened next: "When Dad arrived on campus, the president called him into his office and showed him a letter he had just received.  The letter was from the elderly man whom my father had met on the train, and it contained a check for $518 to cover Dad's tuition and living expenses for one full year." The kindness of an unknown friend made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley's father, Alex Haley himself, and every succeeding generation of that family.

As a person who has been in just a minor degree of need, I know what the acts of love and care performed by virtual strangers can mean.