This week I’m going way off topic as something happened to make me truly thankful for all I have, including my forum to reach out here. I know Nuvollo will support me in this blog and it’s lack of anything to do with our business, because that the kind of people we are. It’s a bit long but I ask you to please read it all the way through.
Thursday afternoon around 3:00 pm I decided to go outside to enjoy a breath of the beautiful fresh air and absorb some natural vitamin D. By then it was getting a bit windy and chilly but as a good Canadian coming out of winter hibernation it was glorious! Also working from home I don’t often make the time to get up and move around enough, so this was the perfect day.
I discovered that it wasn’t only the perfect day but the perfect time by chance. As I walked just a few steps an elderly lady approached me. She began to speak to me in a language I do not speak or understand, but I did manage to make out enough words to know she was speaking Chinese. She kept trying desperately to communicate with me and I was at a total loss to understand but realized she was anxious.
So I did my best to communicate to her to stay with me as I found 2 neighbours both who spoke Chinese fluently and luckily one of them spoke more than 1 dialect. We huddled around her to keep her out of the wind and began to try and find out what she needed, and what she was trying so hard to tell me.
She began to tell us she was looking for her house. The problem was she was telling us what we thought was the name of a street, but when we Googled it, it turned out to be her village back in China. That was when my radar went off!
I told my neighbours to keep her close and talking while I call for help. I dialed 911 and spoke to the dispatcher who said she will send the police. About 15 minutes later I called back to 911 and asked if a car had been dispatched, the operator was a bit terse and said ‘no why are you calling 911 again?’. I explained that the lady was clearly suffering from dementia and didn’t know where she was and the temperature was dropping. She asked me ‘is she hurt?’, I said no but it is getting colder and she had told us she was walking for hours. Finally in my frustration I asked to be transferred to the paramedics! Reluctantly the operator did so and I began to explain the issue to them.
They stayed on the phone with me and asked questions while at the same time sending an ambulance. So I acted as the translator while my neighbours asked her the questions I was being asked and gave me her answers. Not many of her answers made sense but we were able to figure out that she was not safe alone, and it was getting chilly for someone of her age and frailty to be outside on the street lost. We discovered she is 84 years old (which seemed right) and she was trying to get back to her village.
Within minutes I heard the sirens and met the ambulance and the paramedics. I filled them in with as much information as I could and they were so kind and caring with her. I helped them to get her in the ambulance since she seemed to trust me most even though I wasn’t the one able to communicate with her, our eye contact with each other said it all. She told my neighbours what a nice man I was, even though I did very little in my mind. To me my neighbours were the saviors for being able to speak with her and explain we would not leave her and stay to help her.
After I was able to help her in to the ambulance I thanked the paramedics for their help and kindness, then my neighbours for being so kind as to spend all this time helping out. We were genuinely concerned for her well being so we did what we could to make sure she was safe.
That night at around 10:00 PM I walked out my front door for no real reason, and I saw a police car slowly driving by looking sort of lost. So I flagged him down to see if something had happened in the neighbourhood. He said no he was looking for a street and couldn’t find it. So I took out my phone opened Google maps and we looked up the street and directions how to get there. I took the opportunity to ask him about the call I made earlier in the day regarding the elderly lady that was lost and clearly suffering from dementia.
This is where I realized there is something called fate and it is real! The officer said he was on his way to the family of the lady’s house as they had called in a missing persons report! We looked at each other in a bit of shock and awe that of all the people he would bump in to, here is the person who made that initial call. I was so relived to know that her family was looking for her and that soon she would be back where she belongs. I called my neighbours even though it was 10:30 PM at this point to tell them and we all thanked each other, we made a difference and possibly saved a life with 1 RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS!
I am not looking for admiration, or a pat on the back please do not misunderstand the message here. I am asking everyone and anyone who takes the time to read this to just think beyond yourself and reach out to someone who may not even know they need your help. Perform any Act of Random Kindness that comes your way, the feeling of knowing you’ve made a difference in someone’s life is amazing!
I wish everyone a Happy Easter and Happy Passover. I know my Passover will be extra special this year because I was given the chance to help another person and expected nothing in return, and I was fortunate enough to find out strictly by chance that she was going to be ok and back home with her family. You can’t buy that kind of feeling or put a value on it!!
With all the turmoil in our world it feels good to do some good, I encourage everyone to try it.