On the plus side, I ran out of gas one day. I was disfellowshipped. A Dub I grew up with stopped and gave me a ride to a gas station. I had no money (or I wouldn't have been out of gas) and she even used her own money to put gas in the gas can. I mailed the money back to her when I got it. I've always appreciated her kindness.
On the negative side, a friend of mine's JW grandmother is very sick. She needed heart bypass surgery. She was going to have it, despite the necessary blood transfusion, but her JW family convinced her not to do it because of the blood transfusion. The doctors refused to operate without blood because her levels were so low to begin with. Now it's been three+ weeks and she's dying from suffering repeated heart attacks in the hospital. The family is furious with the hospital for 'allowing' their mother to deteriorate! Grandma now says she's willing to accept the blood and have the surgery but the doctors have told her that, since she's had repeated heart attacks and declined so much in the past few weeks, it's too late to have the surgery. She'd never survive. Doctors at three other hospitals have been approached by the family but, upon reviewing the records, those docs agree that she is NO LONGER a candidate for surgery, although she was a candidate when she first entered the hospital. So my friend is very upset because his grandmother is dying needlessly in front of his eyes. He said that he used to see his Dub relatives as good people who were just misguided. Now he sees them as murderers, who have in effect killed their own mother. And they hold their heads high because they held to their convictions.
So, good people who are just misguided? I think not.
StAnn