The Kindess Of Strangers.
First, happy belated birthday to waywardson_lvr!! And happy early birthday to marigoldg!! Hope they are/were good ones!!
So now I will tell you a story about a Good Samaritan.
To start, let me explain how nobody calls us after 9pm because they all know my sister gets up for work at 5 in the morning. The family knows this and I make sure all my friends know it too. If the phone does ring after 9, my sister stumbles out of bed, half asleep and disoriented - (she sleeps soundly so she is always confused as hell when she wakes up in the middle of the night) - and in a full on panic that some terrible emergency is taking place. Why else would the phone be ringing in the middle of the night - never mind that sometimes it is only 9:30pm. My mom will call at 9:10 and say, “I know it is past the cut off time, but it’s only a little past the time, right?” - all the while my sister is stumbling down the hallway, thinking it must be 1am and asking me who has died, because why else would the phone be ringing? No, it is just my mom and she wants to know who that guy is on channel 6 right now.
Anyways, the other night the phone rings at 9:30. I rush out to answer it before it can wake up my sister, who sadly was sick last week with a terrible cold. Whoever it is hangs up on the answering machine. I figure they must have been trying to reach AutoZone, because people are always calling here for Autozone. I go back to my room. Five minutes later the phone rings again. Before I can get to it, the machine picks up.
The person says, “Hi, I’m up at the Kroger (our local grocery) and looking for *my sister*…”
Of course my first thought is, ‘Shit, my mom tried to drive herself to the store with her arm in a cast and her fingers all swollen and got in an accident.’
So I answer the phone. The woman tells me that she is up at the Kroger and am I related to *my cousin’s ex-wife*? I tell her, sort of..that she used to be married to my cousin. The whole time now I am thinking about how the ex-cousin used to have fainting spells all the time and they must be calling because she is unconscious and shit, are the kids up there with her? How did the lady get this number? Maybe we are still in the ex-cousin’s speed dial from before the divorce. Maybe her oldest kid is panicking and we are the only number he can remember off the top of his head right now.
So I ask, rather panicked, “What has happened? Is she all right?”
By this point my sister is awake in her bed, only hearing my side of the conversation, and struggling to get up and find out what is going on, only she has been really sick and was too disoriented to figure out how to get the covers off.
“Oh no, no, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the lady says. “I found her wallet.”
She found it and called us because we have the same last name and are listed in the phone book. Most of my family all have cellphones, which of course aren’t listed in the phone book. I gave her my cousin’s number and told her that he would have a way to get in touch with his ex. I thanked her for going out of her way to be so helpful because nothing sucks as hard as losing your wallet.
Then of course she wants to chit-chat and tell me about the time she lost her purse and I didn’t want to be rude and say, “I have to go finish reading some porn, lady.”
After I got off the phone with her, I went to tell my sister what had happened and her first words were, “What’s wrong with Mom?”
I find it highly encouraging that someone out there would go to so much trouble to help a stranger who had lost her wallet. I also find it a little sad that if our phone rings at 9:30 at night, we automatically think something terrible has happened - it makes me feel old and lame, you guys.
Now, if you want to be both uplifted and sad at the same time, you should go check out 40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken. I saw it over on dugindeep's LJ and I was literally sobbing by the time I got through looking at all of these moving pieces of our history. Don't say I didn't warn you though.
So now I will tell you a story about a Good Samaritan.
To start, let me explain how nobody calls us after 9pm because they all know my sister gets up for work at 5 in the morning. The family knows this and I make sure all my friends know it too. If the phone does ring after 9, my sister stumbles out of bed, half asleep and disoriented - (she sleeps soundly so she is always confused as hell when she wakes up in the middle of the night) - and in a full on panic that some terrible emergency is taking place. Why else would the phone be ringing in the middle of the night - never mind that sometimes it is only 9:30pm. My mom will call at 9:10 and say, “I know it is past the cut off time, but it’s only a little past the time, right?” - all the while my sister is stumbling down the hallway, thinking it must be 1am and asking me who has died, because why else would the phone be ringing? No, it is just my mom and she wants to know who that guy is on channel 6 right now.
Anyways, the other night the phone rings at 9:30. I rush out to answer it before it can wake up my sister, who sadly was sick last week with a terrible cold. Whoever it is hangs up on the answering machine. I figure they must have been trying to reach AutoZone, because people are always calling here for Autozone. I go back to my room. Five minutes later the phone rings again. Before I can get to it, the machine picks up.
The person says, “Hi, I’m up at the Kroger (our local grocery) and looking for *my sister*…”
Of course my first thought is, ‘Shit, my mom tried to drive herself to the store with her arm in a cast and her fingers all swollen and got in an accident.’
So I answer the phone. The woman tells me that she is up at the Kroger and am I related to *my cousin’s ex-wife*? I tell her, sort of..that she used to be married to my cousin. The whole time now I am thinking about how the ex-cousin used to have fainting spells all the time and they must be calling because she is unconscious and shit, are the kids up there with her? How did the lady get this number? Maybe we are still in the ex-cousin’s speed dial from before the divorce. Maybe her oldest kid is panicking and we are the only number he can remember off the top of his head right now.
So I ask, rather panicked, “What has happened? Is she all right?”
By this point my sister is awake in her bed, only hearing my side of the conversation, and struggling to get up and find out what is going on, only she has been really sick and was too disoriented to figure out how to get the covers off.
“Oh no, no, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the lady says. “I found her wallet.”
She found it and called us because we have the same last name and are listed in the phone book. Most of my family all have cellphones, which of course aren’t listed in the phone book. I gave her my cousin’s number and told her that he would have a way to get in touch with his ex. I thanked her for going out of her way to be so helpful because nothing sucks as hard as losing your wallet.
Then of course she wants to chit-chat and tell me about the time she lost her purse and I didn’t want to be rude and say, “I have to go finish reading some porn, lady.”
After I got off the phone with her, I went to tell my sister what had happened and her first words were, “What’s wrong with Mom?”
I find it highly encouraging that someone out there would go to so much trouble to help a stranger who had lost her wallet. I also find it a little sad that if our phone rings at 9:30 at night, we automatically think something terrible has happened - it makes me feel old and lame, you guys.
Now, if you want to be both uplifted and sad at the same time, you should go check out 40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken. I saw it over on dugindeep's LJ and I was literally sobbing by the time I got through looking at all of these moving pieces of our history. Don't say I didn't warn you though.