Stories of Kindness from Around the World

It was a busy and stressful day at work. I decided that I had done what I could do and it was time to face the hour-long commute to the East Bay. It was stop-and-go as usual when I finally braved through the Bay Bridge traffic and reached the Powell Street exit ten minutes from my home in Berkeley. 

About to exit the freeway, I noticed a large black pick-up truck parked a bit abruptly to the right shoulder. A small Hispanic woman got out of the driver seat and opened the back door. I could barely see her through the tinted windows but something didn’t seem right. Just as I pulled over behind her and got out of the car, she came running towards me -- screaming. As the tiredness of the day slipped away rather quickly, I tried to remain calm and inquire what the situation was and walked back with her to the truck. Peering into the back seat I noticed that there was a little boy in a car seat having what looked like, a seizure.

The mom was completely flustered and besides herself. She was trying to frantically call 911 but wasn’t getting through. I tried to call and got the same results. A couple of minutes later, a young man came up to see if he could help. He told us that if you call 911 from your cell phone it gets re-routed to a central office and then gets transferred to your local police, so it takes a while. It didn’t seem like we had a lot of time to wait around. I remembered that the Oakland Children’s Hospital is only a few minutes away, suggesting that we drive him there instead of waiting. She assured me that she was okay enough to drive and followed my car. As two of us trailed off, the man decided to follow her truck as well. Weaving in and out of traffic, I considered the situation: three strangers, driving at break neck speed to make sure a child was okay.

On the way there, I called the hospital and told them that we were bringing a boy who was having a seizure to the emergency room so that they’re prepared. Luckily, they were ready for him as the mom pulled up in front of me and carried him in.  As I sat in silence in the waiting room, it was difficult to process what had just happened in the last fifteen minutes. While I jumped to action, I couldn’t imagine what had been going through the mother’s heart, completely helpless at seeing her little son go through this.

The young man that helped was about to leave, and came over to thank me for stopping. As I was thanking him, he lifted up his shirt to show me the badge in his pocket. He was a cop! In all the craziness, we hadn’t figured that out. “I have to stop if I see anyone needing help, even when I’m not on duty but it’s good to see that you stopped to help,” he explained. How could I not have stopped? I thought. Thinking back to the day at work, I realized no matter how much I have going on in my life, there’s always room to be kind. The ironic thing was that I no longer felt tired, so the incident helped me put my priorities in place.

Looking back, I don’t remember what was happening at work that was causing the stress. But what I do remember is that an opportunity to be of service came my way, and this time I didn’t let it pass me by. I took that chance to build a connection, help someone in need, and strengthen someone’s faith that people do care about each another. And it’s not such a bad world after all.