Friday, December 29, 2006

Rotten times here

Ben’s dad is doing very poorly. Ben’s mom is having a rough time. Ben and Sam are both sick with colds and fever, hopefully nothing more serious. They spent the day relaxing; I spent the day cleaning which is something I generally do when I’m under stress. Now I have a sore throat.

But there was a glimmer of goodness. Yesterday as I was driving home from work and stopped at a light a man asked me if I could give him a ride to the bus station because he was trying to catch a bus that was leaving soon. I tried to tell him that it was close, that he could walk it but he didn’t know where it was because he was from out of town. He seemed near tears so against my better judgment, I gave him a ride to the bus station. He told me he was on his way home because his baby was in the hospital with RSV, that he’d come to Burlington for a job, that his boss had cashed out his check for him so he could pay the nearly $300 it would take to get back to Tennessee. He offered me money but I couldn’t accept it, no way. I felt for him, felt fortunate that even though my boy is sick, it’s probably just a nasty cold with a fever, not something life threatening. I felt fortunate that I wasn’t in a situation where I had to seek work far from home and that we have enough resources that we can make ends meet.

I was glad to have been able to help him. It made me feel better to think that something so small from me could be so important to him.

I was also thankful that for me, he restored a bit of trust of others. I’m glad I took the risk.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you took a chance and helped this man get to the bus. What is "RSV"? Is it something that kids recover from?

Anne V said...

RSV is a respiratory virus that can kill small children. I believe the kid is put into a coma and intubated although I'm happy to have very little knowledge of this.