Encounter with a Stranger

"You are a little young for a cane, aren't you?" said the man sitting next to me on the bus.

Not again, I thought. Leave me alone. I am tired. I smiled at him out of politeness.

"Are you doing better?" he asked. More polite nodding. Turn your head back to neutral position, please. I don't feel like talking about it today.

"I had a stroke," he stared across the aisle. "I was paralyzed and blind." He pointed to his eyes emphatically, lest I did not know what blind meant.

"Really?" I was intrigued. With little encouragement, the stranger went ahead and told me his story. "See these?" He pointed to his teeth, several in the front were much whiter than the rest. "These are new. My face twisted so much during the stroke that I lost all of these teeth."

"You know what I do every morning when I get up? I thank..." he pointed up. "Yup, the Almighty. My mother died many years ago, and when I was blind and paralyzed, lying on that hospital bed, I said, 'Mama, take me to you--I can't live like this.'

"Then one day, I woke up and ran to the window. The nurse who stayed with me yelled, 'Mr. F., what are you doing?!' I said, 'I am looking out of the window!' and she said, 'You ran to the window!'"

The stranger chuckled in his reminiscence. He reached for the bell, it was his stop. I didn't want him to get off. I was overflowing with questions. What did it feel like, to wake up and see and run? Did it feel the same as it does in a dream? Were you bursting with so much joy that you thought your body has exploded?

"God bless you. Keep believing," he pointed up again, his eyes shining brighter than his sparkly white teeth.

Thank you for sharing, dear stranger. How I wish that one day I can share with another like you did.

Tunnel

No tunnel is infinitely long, and there will always be light at the end of it. So keep your head up, and take it one step at a time. Remember that you are never traveling alone. Many have walked through it, many are, and many more will.