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When
our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was
stolen. Owning a bicycle was a big deal to our children when they were little.
They spent hours and hours, day after day, on their bicycles, riding up and
down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode together as a
family a lot. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and
into the fresh air without spending any money.
Bradley
had discovered that his bicycle had been stolen from our backyard in Campbell town,
South Australia, when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He
couldn't believe that someone would do this.
He
got a large piece of cardboard, painted a sign begging for the bicycle to be
returned, and tied the sign to the letterbox. The following morning, when I
went out to collect the mail, I found a white envelope with the magical words,"
Buy yourself a new bicycle". There was a $100 banknote inside.
We
were very touched that someone had the heart to do this. We've never been able
to thank the person but we suspect（猜想）that it
may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big" !" on the sign and we
left it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards, hoping the kind stranger
would drive down our street.
A
delighted Bradley was able to buy a new bicycle. As the years went on, the
bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as important for
those family bicycle rides. Now Bradley is 25. Sometimes I miss the days when
receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.
All
these years later we are still thankful for the stranger's kindness. We were a
young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk
about it and, even now, wonder who the kind stranger was.
