Quiet kindness can change a life

However, his journey did not begin with my court or with our amazing team.

It began when he was homeless on the streets of Redwood City, struggling to survive.

He shared a story that has stayed with me. While living on the streets, he often visited a local Wells Fargo branch to withdraw the small monthly VA stipend he received. The employees there saw him not as a nuisance or a problem, but as a fellow human being who was struggling, whose kind heart and warm smile were often masked by his homelessness and drug addiction. When he was hungry, they fed him. When he was cold, the branch manager literally took the jacket off his back and gave it to him. They treated him with dignity when he had little reason to believe the world still cared about him.

Those employees may never know that they were crucial to his recovery because of the way they treated him in his darkest days.

They may never know that he now regularly stands before a judge, sober, accountable, healthy and with a wonderful smile. Their simple acts of kindness were the foundation of his recovery.

Over the years, Veterans Treatment Court has taught me that recovery doesn’t begin with a dramatic breakthrough. It begins with someone — a neighbor, an attorney, a social worker, a judge — believing a person is still worth helping.

In the heart of Silicon Valley, among billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies, more than 7,000 employees and volunteers serve at the Veterans Affairs campuses in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Livermore, dedicating themselves to our veterans. These employees and volunteers, ranging from social workers to doctors, are true public servants, enriching our veterans’ lives every day. The Veterans Administration in the Bay Area truly exemplifies the words of Abraham Lincoln when he stated, “It is our nation’s responsibility to care for him (and her) who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”

Recovery is not the result of one person, one program or even one change. It is a long road that requires accountability, treatment, support, dedicated public servants, love and a willingness on the part of the person to put in the hard work to change. Along the way, small acts of compassion and encouragement truly matter — the coat that keeps someone warm, the program that inspires change, and the words of encouragement from a judge. There is always a need to remind someone that they still have value.

To the employees of Wells Fargo and to all others who take time, effort and money to show compassion to those struggling, without expecting any recognition, I offer you a simple “thank you.” You may never know the difference you made, but I had the privilege of seeing it.

In a world that often feels divided, it is something worth remembering.

Mike Wendler, in Redwood City, is a Superior Court judge in San Mateo County and presides over the Veterans Treatment Court. He is also a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq and is currently a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, serving as the deputy commanding general of 4th Marine Logistics Group, headquartered in New Orleans.