Kindness Matters (08/07/2025)

Years ago, there was a wonderful bakery on Main Street across from Common’s Park in Lake Mills. Its pies and cakes, buns and rolls were the best. It was owned by the Davis Family.

All the Davis children helped out in some capacity at the bakery over the years. Claudia served as the waitress and clerk at the front, filling the customers’ orders. There was one woman in particular that she struggled with partly because of her unkept appearance and partly because of her behavior. The woman never wanted to pay the full price.

Mr. Davis would fill empty flour bags with the unsold rolls and sell the bags for 50¢. However, this one woman would ask for the bag of rolls but argue that she only wanted to pay 25¢. Claudia would go and ask her dad who would tell her to give it to the woman for 25¢, which Claudia would do. When Claudia asked her dad why he did that, he’d tell her, “We don’t know what’s going on in this woman’s life.”

The woman also liked pies. She would buy a pie and then a long time afterwards, she would bring a tiny sliver of the pie back. She would show it to Claudia, point out that it was moldy, and ask for a new pie for free. Claudia would ask her dad who would tell her to do it. When Claudia challenged it, her dad would tell her, “We don’t know what’s going on in this woman’s life.”

This went on for a very long time. Finally, one day when the woman returned the sliver of moldy pie, Claudia went to her dad again to complain. So, her dad went to the front to speak with the woman. The woman showed him the piece of moldy pie. Mr. Davis asked, “Where’s the rest of the pie?” The woman looked at him in disbelief, then said, “Well, I couldn’t carry all of that.” Mr. Davis responded, “Okay, choose another pie.”

This “moldy pie” scenario happened several times, maybe 20 times. And every time, Mr. Davis gave the woman a new pie. When Claudia questioned her dad, he’s tell her that the woman obviously needed the pie more than they did. And then he’d say, “Besides, the customer is always right.”

Suddenly, without explanation, the woman quit coming. For two months, she didn’t enter the shop. When Claudia mentioned the woman’s absence, Mr. Davis suggested that maybe she had gone on vacation.

Then one day, a legal-size envelope from an attorney arrived at the bakery. When Mr. Davis opened it, it contained a letter from the attorney explaining that the woman had died, but that she herself had written a check to Mr. Davis and on the “memo” line, she had written, “to Mr. Davis, the kindest man in Lake Mills.”

Mr. Davis got in touch with the attorney and voided the check. He told the attorney he didn’t need to be reimbursed for kindness. But he kept the check and framed it and showed it to his children frequently and reminded them that when you’re kind, it matters to people…it matters a lot. In fact, Mr. Davis would say, it’s all that really mattered.

I thank Claudia for sharing the story with me, reminding me of her father’s wisdom backed by his actions. We are called to treat others with loving kindness, recognizing that we often don’t know what’s going on in others’ lives, the challenges they face nor the hardships they bear. I know for a fact that I’m not always that patient nor understanding. I pray that I might still become kinder and seek to display loving understanding like Mr. Davis.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.