Have you ever regretted not stopping the car when you saw an accident? I have, but a sweet woman named Christine made made all the difference when she turned her car around on the way home from work December 27th in Salt Lake City. I am fairly athletic and coordinated, but I do trip sometimes while running. I'm writing this blog with one hand to say a big "Thanks!" to all the Christine's out there who slow down enough to perceive human need. She could see that I was not alone, but that fact did not deter her questioning, "Are you okay?" The self-sufficient side of me insisted, "Yeah, I'm okay thanks," until I pulled my hand from a deep crevice next to the sidewalk. "Wait, no, I think we need a ride."
Back at home in the Bay Area, Doctor Schneider, the hand specialist at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, described this as a "severe injury" that will take four months to heal. When I told our department at Paly that I would need some time off, an extremely generous co-worker offered to make a Costco run. I asked for three items (embarrassed to need help), she showed up with a station-wagon full--we've been feasting for days. She would not accept reimbursement and even offered to go again. I wouldn't dream of sending her back into the traffic jam she dealt with to get here, but the gesture means everything.
In my broken, lopsided state I don't know who feels better from these acts of service and going out of one's way, these and others who have helped or myself having been a reluctant receiver of their goodness!
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| For the first hour, as we drove in circles looking for an urgent care clinic that didn't seem to exist on Google Maps, I had no feeling in my finger. I was sure it was severed under the thick cotton running gloves, but was elated when my husband asked if it was bleeding. "No," I said, "just dangling and I can't feel it." |
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