I woke up late in the morning like any other Summer day, turned to grasp the cellphone, took off my sleeping socks and rolled out of bed. Very sunny today in Richmond District, felt pretty fresh and I wondered what can I write after 6 months of empty blog. So I decided to share the story about yesterday.
Yesterday. I met an old age lady, the time took away the elegant look on her appearance, left behind such just winkles and a small - weaken body. But with the quality of within herself, I keep her name in this article: An Aged Lady.
It happened on the 38 Geary bus, it was packed with human kind - all kind: Caucasian, African American, and Asian; young to old and business people and students and house wives. I had to stand stiffly near the entree door on the right hand side. There was a young boy kept on making annoying sound with his chewing gum in an opened mouth; he was around 15 years old Latino boy, feel like he would be type of boy that loves sport and has a big ego. He was sitting in front of me, so I was quite paranoid by his sound-making machine since I'm a sound-sensitive kind of person.
Then it came the stop Scott and Geary, the aged lady with her wheelchair demanded the bus driver to let her on the bus; the driver was hesitated: "Can you wait for the next bus?" and she was strongly making her point clear: "I've been waiting here so long, and it's cold out here. I have an appointment and I need to get on the bus." The whole bus dragged their attention to the front entree door, watching the conversation and no one said a word; could be because everyone thought the bus was packed, there was no possibility to have space for one more, even she was tiny. The Bus Driver now said, "Ok you can go on but you have to fold the wheelchair" - and he didn't move his body from the "Driver Spot"; "I'm too weak to do this, someone must have to help me" said the lady with her confident voice. So then the Driver got off his seat and helped the lady. She got on the bus, weakly walk along the side on a full bus and pointed on one specific seat: "Can I sit there sir, and please don't move the bus, I can't balance - I will fall if I don't sit down." We spread our hands and arms for the old lady to get through the crowd, not to mention the Latino boy and his friend stood up to save the seat for her as well. There was a major movement in the front part of the bus, I could smell some annoyed attitude and mean glance from a woman with her grocery bags; another business - looking woman totally stood up from the seat that was supposed to be next to the old lady, she looked quite mad as well, so I offered her another empty seat just one in front of it...but she preferred to stand. Oh well, so I had the seat, felt a bit better for my legs. The aged lady took her newspaper and read, the bus moved on, people got off and finally I can see the floor; the air was cleaned and fresh again. The lady got off at 33rd Ave, it was one stop before mine - so I helped her to set up the wheelchair; very enthusiastic I tried to open the folded wheelchair, despite the fact that I don't really know how and she stopped me in the middle to say these - which I hardly will ever forget: "Don't do it in a moving bus, it can fall on you and cause injury - not worth it." she continued "The first time I used wheelchair I didn't know so it felt on me and broke my leg. And I don't want it to happen to you."
The bus stopped at 33rd Ave, she got off and waved me to say good bye; and I realized I forgot to say thanks to her teaching on the 38 Geary bus on a Wednesday's late afternoon.
