Produced by the I Lab at W-B-U-R, Boston. Welcome to Kind World. I'm Andrea Aswahy.

And I'm Yasmin Ammer. I will say the older I get Andrea

the more this one human quality stands up more than anything else care to guess

So I'm not gonna say kindness because that's like way too obvious and cheesy I

think it's listening maybe like active listening. I know that's something that I have

certainly had to work on as I've gotten older.

Absolutely I do think that's important. I think what I was thinking encompasses like

both kindness and active listening. It's just being

thoughtful. It's being a thoughtful person and to me that means you're seeing what

somebody's going through without really them having to say it.

And we really do have an excellent reminder of that

in a 2016 story by producer Erica Lance.

Every year around Christmas, people encounter all sorts of surprises. Laura De Geronimo got a surprise for Christmas a few years ago that wasn't the kind you'd welcome.

The story starts in 2013 when Laura was 25 and in love.

She lived with her boyfriend, whom she dated for four years, and she knew something big was on the horizon.

Everybody was asking, what colors for the wedding?

How's the seating going to go when you get married?

When are you guys going to start having kids?

Do you think you guys are going to have two kids or three kids?

Wow, this sure would be a good place to have a wedding.

One day, her boyfriend said it was time for a heart to heart. She didn't know quite what to expect.

It was December 22nd, 2013. It was like 6 PM. He said, we need to talk. I said okay and he said I just think that things would be best for both of us if we broke up

...