Kindness spreads across the Valley to honor woman killed in DUI crash

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Emily Krieghoff is having a busy Monday.

Before her workday started, she bought Starbucks for a stranger and told students why she pays it forward.

"Just running around being kind. Little things add up. Little things, exactly. You never know what kindness can do to a person," she said.

Emily's felt a lot of kindness in her life and sometimes, she's really needed it.

She lost her best friend, Molly Griffin, in 2015.

Molly was a 23-year-old registered nurse with a reputation for being especially nice to her patients.

"But she also did a lot behind the scenes," Krieghoff said. "She'd buy people food at grocery stores. She was always a person I could go and talk to; she was just kind."

RELATED: 'Live like Molly:' Family encourages acts of kindness to remember Fresno woman killed in DUI crash

Emily was right there by Molly's side when a drunk driver hit them. The crash killed Molly, critically injured Emily, and took a big source of kindness from her life.

"There's a huge, huge gap and that didn't hit for a while after the car accident just because my life was so drastically different," Emily said. "So that grief came in a lot later for me. I still feel it every day, but I still feel her presence all the time, and especially during Molly Day. I'm just so happy to celebrate her life and how she lived."

Monday is Molly Day, on what would've been her 28th birthday. Emily has a lot of company in performing acts of kindness to celebrate.

The first social media post using the #LiveLikeMolly hashtag this year talked about buying someone's groceries in Lithuania.

A homeless man in hospice care got new clothes, students and co-workers got treats, and Molly's parents got an emotional boost.

"People know intuitively how rewarding it is to be kind to another person and Molly certainly knew that," said Doug Griffin, Molly's father. "So for people to do that to honor her legacy is something I think is really special."

Clovis Community College is hosting a children's book drive all week. They hold a blood drive on Tuesday and write letters to veterans on Wednesday -- all caring acts to honor a kind woman.