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Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower shops were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and I was just very pleased with the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper. But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged this imagination. She'd ask me if there was someone to whom I had done a special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man who I looked after when he was ill.  As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy.

    One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt very sad and didn't want to go to the coming graduation dance at all. And I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery.

    My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    My friend Mr. Smith is a famous doctor and has a hospital. So he has enough money to travel all over the world. And he's been to a lot of places of interest. He likes to play with children and has a lot of little friends. They often ask him to tell them all kinds of funny things he saw. It makes them happy and his room is always full of children when he's free.

    It was my little son's seventh birthday yesterday. The boy wanted to ask his old friend Mr. Smith to the party. He called Mr. Smith himself and told him about it. The doctor accepted his invitation happily.

    Mr. Smith came on time, with a nice present in his hand. After dinner the children sat around the traveler and asked him to tell them some funny stories. Mr. Smith agreed and his stories made them laugh again and again. At last he told them the funniest story. He said, “Once I reached a city on a foggy day. The fog was the thickest in the world…”

    “Please wait a moment, Mr. Smith,” said my son, “It's said that the fog in London is the thickest in the world.”

    “You're right, my clever boy.” said the funny doctor.” The city had much fog that day…” “What's it, then?” the boy couldn't wait to ask again.

    “The fog was so thick that I couldn't see it at all.” the funny doctor said with a smile.

    Once there was a famine (饥荒) in the town. A rich and kind baker(面包师) sent some bread to twenty of the poorest children. He said to them, "In this basket there is some bread for you. Each of you can have one loaf(一条面包) every day until the hard days end.

    The impatient children couldn't wait to gather around the basket. They shouted and fought for the bread because each wished to have the largest loaf. At last they went away without even thanking the good gentleman. But Shirley, a poorly-dressed little girl, did not join them. Instead, she remained standing modestly in the distance. When the other children had left, she took the smallest left in the basket, kissed the gentleman's hand and went home.

    The next day the children were as rude as before. Poor shy Shirley still took the smallest loaf. When she got home, her mother cut the bread open. Many new shining pieces of silver fell out of it. Her mother was very surprised and said, "Take the money back to the good gentleman at once, for it must have got into the loaf by accident. Be quick, Shirley! Be quick!"

    But when the little girl gave the rich man her mother's message, he said, "No, no, my child. It was no mistake. I put silver pieces into the smallest loaf to reward you because you are a kind and honest girl. Go home and the money is yours now."

    Mr. Smith works in an office. He's very busy and has no time to have a good rest. Every evening, when he comes back from his office, he's always tired and wants to go to bed early. But his wife always has a lot of interesting things to tell him after supper. She doesn't stop talking until she goes to sleep.

    One day Mr. Smith feels terrible and can't go to work. He goes to see a doctor. And Mrs. Smith goes to the hospital with him. Before her husband says what is the matter with him, the woman tells the doctor all about her husband and the doctor understands why. He writes out a prescription(处方). And when Mrs. Smith takes the medicine to the doctor's room, the doctor says to her, "This kind of medicine is for your husband and the pills are for you."

    "For me?" the woman says in surprise. "I'm fine. I don't need any medicine!"

    "I don't think so, madam," says the doctor. "They are sleeping pills. Your husband will be all right if you take them. "

    On February 12, 2019, Brendon Fontaine blew out five candles on a birthday cake. "He loved the cake so much," says his mother, Faith, who lives in Winnipeg with Brendon. "I had to hide it in the back of the fridge. 3

    Brendon's surprise came from Cakes for Kids, a group of home bakers(烘焙师)who know that a simple birthday cake can be uncommon for poor families like the Fontaines.

    The group was set up three years ago by Christy Rogowski, a 40-year-old who works in health care software, and her partner, Wendy Singleton. "Imagining a child who wasn't going to have a birthday cake was really upsetting," Rogowski says.

    A Facebook call-out for volunteers finally added 150 bakers to their name list. When volunteers first apply(申请), they're asked why they want to do so. "Some people have said that they didn't have a cake on their birthday growing up, and they know how important it is," says Singleton. More commonly, though, they say they want families in need to know that their neighbors care about them.

    The names of the cake receivers are provided by community organizations and Winnipeg Child and Family Services. A child might receive a cake because the family is poor. Sometimes a child is sick, leaving the family too busy to make the treat themselves. Cakes also go to children living in foster care（寄养). Jodi Korolyk, a worker with Winnipeg Child and Family Services, has so far ordered birthday cakes for five of the almost 800 kids in their system. "It shows the child they have a lot of people there to support them," she says.

    By the end of last year, Cakes for Kids had baked over 575 cakes to mark kids' birthdays, and the baking continues. Rogowski and Singleton are even considering developing the program nationally and also providing cakes for old people who live alone. After all, there's no age difference when it comes to the positive role of a well-timed cake.