Jesika Laurence, centre, lost her son seven years ago and to remember his ninth birthday she and daughters Elegance Paora, left, and Halo Paora delivered random acts of kindness to strangers. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Jesika Laurence, centre, lost her son seven years ago and to remember his ninth birthday she and daughters Elegance Paora, left, and Halo Paora delivered random acts of kindness to strangers. Photo / Michael Cunningham
When a Whangarei mother lost her son more than seven years ago she was crushed and for years dreaded his birthday - but this year that changed.
Kany'e Jak'san-tre Paewhenua Laurence was only 15 months old when he died. On Monday, he would have turned 9, so to honour hismemory and turn his birthday into a day of celebration, Jesika Laurence and her whanau drove around Whangarei and Moerewa carrying out random acts of kindness.
"For years, I dreaded his birthday and the day he died. I always just got drunk ... and then had a bad day the next day. I never solved any problems," Ms Laurence said.
This year, she wanted to change that. Inspired by a random act of kindness witnessed by her sister, Ms Laurence decided she wanted to do something similar for Kany'e's birthday.
"This year I wanted to do something fun. I wanted to give back, do something nice for the community. I thought 'oh random acts of kindness' because you can give away stuff, you can do all that, but doing something for random people is always nicer."
Ms Laurence and her two daughters, Elegance, 3, and Halo, 2, took to the streets of Whangarei on Monday while her sister was on the streets of Moerewa delivering acts of kindness to strangers.
"She [my sister] made soup for the kaumatua flats, she made a cake for the doctors' clinic there, she paid for someone's gas.
"We were giving out water bottles at the Hatea Loop, we gave out lots of lollies, flowers, I paid for someone's meal at the drive-through, brought toys to the hospital ward, gave out muffins and bubble wands at the park - the whole park was full of bubbles after that. We left tennis balls at the dog park and paid for someone's gas."
Ms Laurence said her son was a "bubbly bubba" and delivering random acts of kindness reflected his personality.
"He was real happy. We'd go anywhere, like we'd stop at my mum's job and he'd toddle off to the staffroom and I'd be like 'where's my son?' and mum's taken him to the balloon shop."
Because her son loved balloons so much she handed out one helium balloon with each gift and asked people to let them go at 4pm while Ms Laurence and her family released balloons at the top of the Parihaka Lookout for Kany'e.
Also attached to gifts was a laminated piece of coloured card containing a photo of Kany'e and a note letting people know what the act of kindness was all about.
