The kindness of strangers: a gay man from Maine takes a Mexican immigrant and her family under his wing after her husband dies in the World Trade Center.

Not far from where a rickety elevated train platform cuts through the heart of a poor North Bronx neighborhood in New York City, Julia Hernandez, a 28-year-old Mexican immigrant who speaks very little English, sits in her apartment.

The walls of her flat are bare save for a framed photograph draped with a small Mexican flag. The photo shows her husband, Antonio, smiling and embracing his best friend. Both were killed on the morning of September 11 as they prepared breakfast in the kitchen of Windows on the World, the posh restaurant near the top of the north World Trade Center tower. Now Hernandez, who has four children ranging in age from 1 to 11, says she is left with no means of support except food stamps and the generosity of friends--one friend in particular.

His name is A.J. Dinkins, and he's a profoundly religious 41-year-old gay hairdresser from Augusta, Maine. And he says that since September he has been consumed by the need to help people affected by the attacks.

Although saddened by the stories of stockbrokers, investment bankers, and rescue workers who perished, he most wanted to help people of lesser means whose stories were scarcely in the news. "I started on the Internet [researching] different charities," Dinkins says. "A lot of the money was going to help firefighters and policemen, and not a lot was for custodians or attendants or restaurant workers." Eventually he learned about Hernandez and her family from a local news report, and he immediately knew where he could direct his charity.

Dinkins first turned to his church, the South Parish Congregational Church in Augusta, asking members for donations. Then he sought assistance from employees at his salon, Illusions Hair Designs. All told, he collected $2,000. (He recently raised an additional $1,500 to bring Hernandez and her family to Maine for a week this coming summer.)

Then on December 16, Dinkins flew to New York City to meet the Hernandez family and to present them with the checks he had collected. He also brought porcelain dolls for the two girls, Daisy and Yaritza; a portable CD player for the older son, Marco; a Spanish Bible and stuffed animals for the younger boy, Saul; and a Spanish Bible and the book Chicken Soup for the Soul for Julia. "I wanted [the family] to have something more than just money," Dinkins says.

For the children, it was like a dream come true. "He came just like Santa Claus," 7-year-old Daisy says breathlessly. She grows suddenly solemn as she glances at the photograph of her dead father. "He's missing," she says. "I'm sad."

Dinkins describes his first meeting with the family as emotional. Since he speaks little Spanish, he and Hernandez could communicate only through the children. "We spent about three hours with them," he says. "And [when] I gave them a check, she was shocked and tearful-eyed, [but] there were not a lot of words other than she thanked us."

CNN captured the meeting for a news story, and in addition to reporting Dinkins's act of kindness, the network broadcast to its international viewing audience that Dinkins is gay. "Going `worldwide gay' was a shock at first," he says, adding that he has never hidden his sexual orientation but that he's never made a big deal of it either.

A self-described member of the gay party circuit in the 1970s, Dinkins says he turned to more of a "family values" lifestyle in the mid `80s, which includes living on a farm with his boyfriend (whose name he won't reveal); they've been together 20 years. Since then, he says, he has never found his sexuality and his religious life to come into conflict. He and his boyfriend attend church together regularly--although, he says, "we don't hold hands"--and the church has been accepting. When his boyfriend is unable to attend services, fellow members "ask where my friend is, and they ask how he is doing," Dinkins says.

Ultimately, he says, he thinks the attention he received on CNN could be beneficial to others. "If someone can look at my situation and say, `I can be out too,' they will follow suit and not be ashamed of who they are," he says. "You have to live your life, be right with God, and do the best you can in life. Don't let anyone cut you down and [make you] ashamed of who you are."

Nevertheless, Dinkins has yet to discuss his sexual orientation with Hernandez or her family. But he's not concerned about what they're likely to learn when they come to Maine this summer. "I am not worried about a negative reaction," he says. "They are not that type of family, and I have great feelings for them."

The Hernandez family has great feelings for Dinkins as well. Mention his name, and smiles play over the family members' faces. Ask if they are looking forward to their trip to Maine, and they shout "Yes!" in an excited chorus.

Though life in New York City continues to be rough for Julia Hernandez, she considers the gift from Dinkins and says simply, "It's very important for the future of my family."

The gift validated something for Dinkins as well. "I think back in my life on the goals I have achieved, and this is one of the most rewarding things," he says. "To help someone in such a large disaster has made me feel really great."

Quittner has also written for The New York Times and Business Week.