All it took was a simple act of kindness and a desire to help others for my wife, Pam, to improve the lives of total strangers during their time of crisis. At the outset, Pam had no idea what would transpire after she acted kindly and compassionately.
I do not know if Beverly Hills is unique, but it has a Human Relations Commission. The mission of the commission is to foster and enhance civility, respect and kindness in the community. Pam was appointed to the commission by the Beverly Hills City Council a year ago. The commission is important to her. She believes in it and wants to make a difference. The actions she took during Thanksgiving week proves just how much she belongs on the commission, how lucky Beverly Hills is to have her as a resident, and how grateful I am to be married to her.
During the afternoon on Monday preceding Thanksgiving Day, Pam was at work in the BHUSD District Offices, where she is the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent. She works on the ground floor, and her office has windows, enabling her to see outside. A skinny young man, somewhere in his mid-20s, carrying a plastic market bag with food and in obvious distress, knocked on the window, asking if he could come in and use the restroom. Pam said, “Sure.” Then she got up, let him in, pointed in the direction of the bathroom and went back to her desk.
Pam’s boss, Michael, the Superintendent, asked Pam, “Who is that guy?” Pam replied, “Just a guy I let use the bathroom. He seemed to really need it.”
Sometime later, the man reappeared, waved goodbye and left. At that point Pam went to check the bathroom and noted that the man had left his food. Pam and Michael also noted that a laptop had been left outside the building in front of Pam’s office. As they did not know whose laptop it was, they assumed it was a student’s.
Then Michael, who is also a very caring person, and Pam reviewed the security footage and noted that the laptop was left by the man Pam had let use the bathroom. For some reason, they were not able to start the laptop. Pam and Michael left the food bag and the laptop outside the office building Monday night, hoping the man would return and retrieve them.
Early Tuesday morning, the bag and laptop were still outside, and the security guard brought them in and left them on the desk outside Pam’s office. Pam and a co-worker took the laptop and tried once again to turn it on. This time it started, but the laptop was password protected. Pam could not login, but she noted that a picture of a man and a woman with their names displayed were visible on the screen. The man in the picture was not the man who used the bathroom.
Curious, and wondering if the laptop was stolen or if it belonged to the man who used the bathroom, Pam jotted down the names on the login screen and began googling them. Surprisingly, Pam found a hit on the woman’s name. The woman and her husband, the man in the picture, lived in Seattle. Additionally, Pam found a landline phone number for them. So, she dialed the number, hoping it would be answered, but thinking it was unlikely to be, as no one answers landlines anymore.
When a woman unexpectedly answered, Pam immediately said, “Hi, my name is Pam. Please do not hang up.” Pam went on to introduce herself and explain how she got the phone number and why she was calling.
After Pam had described the man, the woman began to sob. Through her sobs she said, “Oh my god. That is my son’s laptop. He has some mental health issues, and he ran away from us a couple of days ago. We do not know where he is now, but we were able to ping his computer over the weekend and could tell he was at Saks in Beverly Hills.” Pam told the woman what she knew and what had transpired.
At this point, Pam began to feel terrible, both for the family and herself, because she had no idea where the man was, either. Pam hoped the man would return for his possessions, but he did not. Pam, thinking the man was homeless, went over to Roxbury Park later in the day and asked the Park Rangers if they had seen the man. They hadn’t.
On Wednesday afternoon, Pam texted the woman to let her know that she was still looking for the man and had visited Roxbury Park multiple times but had not found him. The woman said that she and her husband had been in the car for 20 hours and were driving to Beverly Hills and would arrive Wednesday evening. Their plan was to file a missing person report. They also hoped to visit Pam’s office on Monday, after the holiday was over, to review the security footage.
Pam texted Michael Wednesday night to let him know what was happening. Michael said he would be in the office Friday, even though it was a holiday, and asked Pam to extend an invitation to the woman and her husband to come to the office Friday to view the footage.
On Wednesday night, the Beverly Hills Police Department called Pam and asked her what had transpired so they could verify the woman’s story as part of filing the missing person report.
On Thursday Pam continued to cruise by Roxbury Park, hoping to see the man, but she did not.
On Friday, Pam and Michael met the woman and her husband at the district offices and learned that the LAX Airport Police had located the man and were able to contact the woman because of the missing person report. Though the man did not want to return home on Friday, the woman and her husband were able to see the man and try to convince him to return home, something he did not do until Monday.
Pam’s selfless and caring acts played a huge role in enabling the family to be reunited. The actions she took and the care she had for the people involved was inspiring to everyone.
Of course, her actions came as no surprise to me, as they just reinforced my belief that she is, and always will be, a saint.
Truly inspirational