My year of 100 Family Dinners Week 43: Dinners 103 & 104

When Kindness Shows Up Where You Least Expect It

I might not always love living in Arizona but I do love that we don’t do daylight saving time.

While the rest of the world fell back and scrambled to adjust bedtimes and wake-up calls, we stayed exactly the same. No clock changes. No added chaos. I was quietly grateful for that small mercy.

Because this week? This week was already full.

Busy Before It Even Began

We came into the week juggling tickets to a touring Broadway show, IEP meetings, hair appointments, doctor visits, booster club responsibilities, and a playoff football. My birthday is coming up and instead of gifts, I wanted an experience. So I bought tickets for the kids and me to see & Juliet.

It felt like a bright spot on the calendar.

Wednesday night arrived after two packed days of drama club, football practice, booster club planning, work, and appointments. I was a little anxious about the seating: one of my seats was slightly away from the other two, but my son has been incident-free for over a week and was excited to sit there. He loves talking to people, and this gave him a chance to chat with two couples he’d never met. The show itself was incredible. We loved it. And then… the night took a turn.

A Moment That Shook Us

As we were leaving the theater, a man began yelling at my daughter after bumping into her. Not just snapping: yelling. Swearing. Following us. Saying things that should never be directed at children.

I told him to leave my kids alone and kept walking. He followed us again outside, yelling louder, swearing more, with hundreds of people around us. At one point, I had to stop, turn around, and say very clearly, “You need to leave my children alone.”

He shouted about anxiety. About autism. About how kids shouldn’t bump into old men. I wasn’t sure what point he was trying to make or why he felt justified swearing at children.

Eventually, his friend intervened and pulled him away.

I’ve thought about that moment a lot since. We apologized for bumping into him because accidents happen but nothing excuses yelling, following someone, or frightening kids.

We chose to walk away. To de-escalate. To show our kids that standing up for yourself doesn’t mean sinking to someone else’s level.

To get to the parking garage, there were two options: walk toward the man again or step briefly into a driveway with moving cars. I waved to a driver, and a kind stranger stopped to let us pass. That small act of kindness felt huge in the moment. When it can to walking near an erratic man or moving cars: I picked the cars.

I don’t know what’s going on in the world lately but I do know we need more patience, more gentleness, and more grace. A bad day never justifies cruelty.

Hair, Appointments, and a Deep Breath

The next day brought something lighter: my daughter’s hair appointment. She walked out with a beautiful calico color, something I never would have imagined doing at fourteen.

But the calm didn’t last long.

Thursday afternoon, during the final football practice ahead of the first playoff game, I was packing the car for booster club dinner with the football team:

Then my phone rang.

A Moment I’ll Never Forget

One of the coaches told me my son was having a full convulsive seizure on the field.

In four years with this team, they’d known he had epilepsy but they’d never seen it. He’d had absences, collapses, quiet moments. Never a full tonic-clonic seizure.

He felt it coming and sat down. One of the boys caught his head before it hit the ground. The coaches jumped into action. When I arrived, he was coming out of it. We got him into the car and home to rest. And then the parents started calling and sharing what their boys were reporting: that I will carry with me forever.

All the boys took a knee. They prayed for him and stayed there until the seizure stopped.

We are not a religious family. But having a field full of teenage boys kneel down and pray for your child breaks straight through any labels, differences, or beliefs you may hold. It was love. Pure and simple.

That night, my phone filled with messages from parents. Their kids were worried. Asking about my son. Sending care. This had been his biggest fear for years that he’d be teased or mocked.

The opposite happened.

Kindness I’ll Never Forget

The next night, my son ran out onto the football field with his team. Because of his cerebral palsy and because he is a coach, he usually runs in the back but this time, he ran in front.

And not a single one of those fast, athletic boys passed him.

We didn’t know that night would be the last game of the season or the last game for our seniors. But I will never forget the kindness we were shown. Teenagers can be so hard. And sometimes they are extraordinary.

The Heart of This Week

We didn’t have a single sit-down dinner at the table this week.

We had one dinner in my bed after the seizure.One dinner in the car on the way to the theater.

And we had time. Together. Loving each other through fear, exhaustion, and gratitude.

This week reminded me that connection doesn’t always look peaceful or quiet. Sometimes it looks like standing up for your kids, accepting help, and watching kindness show up when you least expect it.

This isn’t where we thought life would be but it’s where we are.

And I am deeply grateful for the community holding us here.