ONE of the smartest people I know keeps telling me that the surest way to help yourself is to help others first. Linda Kato is proof of that. Making herself happy
by helping othersKato's hobby is cheering people up, mainly by writing them letters. She has disciplined herself to regularly send off thoughtful handwritten letters to people - often strangers - who she feels need a boost.
I started hearing from her when I wrote a column grumbling about a particularly bad week I had. She wrote to describe her own horrible week, which beat mine hands down.
"Keep your sense of humor," she counseled. "When we can laugh about it, it's easier to face a bad day. Hope this week is a better one for you!"
Kato, a state unemployment adjudicator, wrote again when she read that our photographer Terry Luke had died.
"It's never easy to say goodbye to people we love," she said. "We're never ready for that moment. Makes one appreciate every day for its own special qualities."
She offered more comfort recently when she read about the tragic hit-and-run death of Carl Viti, an Advertiser photographer and husband of our layout editor Ruby Mata-Viti. "Carl sounded like a good man," she said, promising to send a donation to a fund set up to benefit his son Taylor.
Kato sees a lot of misery in her job - people out of work, out of money, out of luck. "I process unemployment claims quickly within two weeks on my cases because I try to get the money to them fast to ease their pain and suffering," she said. "This is my only 'joy' in my work - I am helping others."
Kato often dips into her clothing fund to send donations to those in need. She gave a substantial amount to a couple who came to her office for unemployment benefits after the state shut down their business. She gave to the child of a friend who died, to the family of Alana Dung, to charities that caught her attention.
"The girls at work ask me why I don't buy myself new clothes," she said. "I wear the same muumuus over and over again. I look like Aloha Friday every day, my husband tells me."
Few know of her acts of charity. "I don't do this for recognition. I do it from my heart for people I love and strangers I care about. Rather than spend this money on myself, it makes me happy to help others."
When things don't go her way in her own life, Kato puts up a picture of Alana Dung and the thank you note she received for her gift "as a reminder to me that there are people with far more serious problems than me."
"If I continue to do good for others and be kind to everyone then someday the good will come back to me," she said.
WHICH is why I was absolutely delighted to see a picture of a beaming Linda Kato and her family in the Star-Bulletin when her 9-year-old daughter Lynne went on a $1,000 shopping spree at Toys 'R' Us as one of 25 winners of a national contest in which Linda had entered her daughter.
Lynne spent a good part of her $1,000 on a bicycle for her younger brother and gifts for other family members and friends. Like mother, like daughter.
Typically, Linda Kato saw a moral to the story.
"The dream came true for my family," she said. "The point of my story is that I feel that the good Lord gave back to me most of the money I gave to others in dire need this past year. Everyone is happier! Isn't that a sweet story?"
Sweet as the smile on Lynne Kato's face.
