To the Editor:
I write to acknowledge the kindness of a stranger on a winter day. On January 2 (temperature in the 20s), at the Princeton University Art Museum, I saw that one of my earrings was missing. I searched for it in all the usual places, including the lost-and-found at the museum desk. No luck.
A bit later in the gift shop, while talking to a friend about the missing earring, a woman came up to me and said that she had just seen the earring, and told me where to look. I looked there extensively, but no luck, and I had all but given up, when the same woman walked up to me holding my earring outstretched in her hand. She realized that she had seen it a different place than where she had sent me, and so she went outside into the bitter cold to collect it. And then took the time to find me!
A small but extraordinary act of kindness, and much appreciated! Thank you, kind woman, whoever you are!