NEW CASTLE, Pa. — By the time she passed away in September, Tiffany Brooke Bell had touched many lives.

And she’s not done yet.

The 40-year-old Frizzleburg resident died unexpectedly Sept. 12 in her apartment behind the Maple Lane home of her parents, Charles and Diane Bell, and next door to her sister Natalie Williams and her husband, Bryan.

The Bell family faced the hardest Christmas of their lives this year, but their grief has been tempered by the myriad random acts of kindness that Tiffany’s life and an outreach created in her memory by her mother and sister have inspired.

The Facebook group Blessed by Tiffany Brooke Bell bears witness to Tiffany’s legacy, as members share stories of how they have blessed — or been blessed by — others, all in remembrance of Tiffany. Each act was accompanied by a small card bearing Tiffany’s photo and an encouragement to pass it, as well as the kindness that came with it, along.

Diane Bell ordered 1,500 of the cards and continues to send them out — 10 to each person who requests them — and the Facebook group has welcomed 1,100 members.

“It’s blown up more than we ever could have imagined,” Diane Bell said. “Tiffany loved to travel, so she knew a lot of people around the world. We’re getting messages from other countries, people we don’t know. So by them spreading these acts and cards, it’s really taken off.”

The outreach started simply enough. As the family received monetary gifts in the weeks following Tiffany’s death, they considered how they might best use the funds.

“We felt like we needed to do something good with this,” Natalie said. “We never got to throw her a shower or a wedding or anything, so with this money coming in, let’s do something good in her memory.”

They started out by providing 150 Thanksgiving meals for both the City Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army.

“People heard that we were donating these,” Natalie said, “and they also wanted to contribute to us. So what can we do? Instead of people sending us money and us doing it, how awesome would it be to also have people on their own blessing people every day?”

“And,” Diane added, “they can do it on a much broader scale. So the cards have gone across the country. Sometimes, when people get them (along with an act of kindness), instead of keeping them, they in turn use them. So one card can travel all over.”

What would spur people on to such actions? The answer, Diane and Natalie say, is Tiffany, who lived in Cleveland, Texas, Tampa and Pittsburgh before returning to her native Frizzleburg. Along the way, she worked in marketing, real estate and the home warranty businesses, and even authored a children’s coloring book with a title and message that encourages children to “Share Your Light.”

“This is what she did,” Natalie said. “She’d come home and say, ‘I saw this person, and I knew they were struggling to pay for whatever, so I just did it and ran.’ She didn’t want any praise for it. She didn’t want anyone to know.”

The acts done in Tiffany’s name and shared on the Facebook page reflect that same spirit.

Jennifer Grace, a server at Mama Jane’s Eatery, told of the card and the $50 tip that accompanied a customer’s $28 check.

“Some days as a server are harder than others,” she wrote. “Lately, I have been having some ‘do I even want to do this anymore?’ days (I have been a server 22 years. Presently drive from Greenville to New Castle for work).

“But days like today, God presents his people and reminds me there is always a bigger picture and not to lose faith. I am incredibly sorry for your loss. But know her love for God is still shining through.”

Another group member wrote of getting the card when a woman paid for breakfast for her and her daughters. She then passed the card along to a second “unsuspecting patron” at the same restaurant.

Still another shared that she had passed the card along after helping a woman who was struggling to purchase an outfit to wear to her daughter’s basketball game, and both hugged and cried afterward.

Perhaps the most meaningful experience, though, was one that Diane and Natalie experienced first hand.

They were having breakfast at Bob Evans and, seeing a neighbor, told their server that they would pay for his meal as well. When the server saw the card with Tiffany’s photo, she recognized it as one that had been passed around the restaurant a week before. Eventually, she estimated, it had made its way through 12 tables.

“Then my mom said, ‘Do you realize this is my daughter (on the card)?’” Natalie said. “She didn’t know. She was telling us this story, not realizing how important those words were to us.”

The incident recalls Shakespeare’s words in “The Merchant of Venice,” where a character observes that mercy blesses both the giver and the recipient.

“We feel like it’s helped our healing,” Diane said.

“This is the way that she lived her life, and she would be so thrilled that this has gone beyond what she could ever have imagined doing on her own.”

The Bell family has no plans to stop their kindness initiative, and they believe that, perhaps, Tiffany has not slowed down, either.

Natalie recalled having to break the news of her sister’s death to her 6-year-old daughter, Kinley, who had a close relationship with her aunt and who, like the rest of the family, also has a fondness for rainbows.

“She was devastated,” Natalie said. “I told her, ‘You know what? Aunt Tiffy loves you so much, I know she’s going to bring you a rainbow this week.’ I don’t even know where those words came from. Who in their right mind promises a sweet 6-year old, whose heart has just been broken into a million pieces, a rainbow?”

Yet three days after Tiffany’s death, with rain sprinkling from the sky, three rainbows arched in sequence over the Bells’ conclave. Kinley missed the first one, but saw the second one around 20 minutes later, as well as the third that appeared in the early evening.

“And I’m just like, ‘She did it,’ ” Natalie said. “It was what we needed. It was beautiful.”

And it wasn’t done yet.

Following a private memorial service two days later when 50 people gathered at the Bell home, a fourth rainbow appeared in the sky over Frizzleburg.

“This time,” Natalie said, “there wasn’t even any rain — none at all! I think God was letting us know that he has her in his ultimate care.

“We are devastated that she is gone. But we are hanging on to every blessing that we can turn this into.”

d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com