Thursday, May 15, 2008

Check this out. This afternoon I had gone out to get something out of my car and on my way back to my apartment I sensed “something” was going on. I had no idea what; it was just one of those feelings you get. I stood on my tip-toes to look around and saw, in the distance, a Black woman struggling with a Caucasian man on a 4-wheeled scooter. The kind an elderly or disabled person might use. I sprinted across the street with lightening speed to help, but to be honest, I had no idea what was really happening between the man and the woman.

As I got closer I could see that the woman was in her 50’s and the man, probably in his 80’s. The cart that the man was sitting on was trying to move forward, but the woman was trying to stop him. It was only then that I could see that an elderly, white-haired woman was under the scooter while the man was completely out of control with his hand on the throttle trying to go forward. The motorized wheels kept lunging forward while the Black woman was trying to get the man’s hands off of the controls. The white-haired, elderly woman was screaming “GET IT OFF ME, GET IT OFF ME!!!

Thankfully, I’ve been working out at the gym on the regular and I’m strong like a MOFO! I lifted the scooter off of the woman like the Incredible Black man that I am. You shoulda seen dat sh*t yo! I rolled up like I was gonna save everybody and everything. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for me to rip out of my shirt and scream like the Incredible Hulk...or Michael Jackson.

So I get the scooter off the woman, comfort her and have her lay still to make sure she wasn’t seriously hurt. She kept repeating, in an Eastern European accent, “I didn’t want to go, I knew something bad would happen”. She didn’t know what the heck had happened except that a damn scooter was pissed off at her for some reason. At that point I didn’t know what had happened either. I slowly helped her get to her feet and guided her to a shady area to gather her wits. Her glasses were bent which gave her a small cut on her cheek; she had a small scrapes on her head and hands and a little abrasion on her leg. Also, her pants were torn and she was quite dirty from being laid the eff out on the sidewalk.

It was only at this point that I got the full story of what happened. The Black woman in her 50’s was a hospice nurse. She was walking along side of the elderly man on the scooter when, all of the sudden, he started going really fast and out of control down the sidewalk. The elderly, white-haired woman was also with them, but she was walking some distance in front of them further down the sidewalk using a walker. She was also his wife. Yup, he had run over his wife with his scooter.

The man on the scooter hadn’t used it for a while and was getting familiar with it again. He’d also had both legs amputated just above the knees and was wearing prosthetics. He was confused and felt terrible about what had happened.

I thought about calling an ambulance, but after a moment or two I assessed that she was okay, just a bit shaken up, bruised and sore. I wasn’t sure what to do next; it all happened so fast. Then the woman asked me if I worked in the area. I replied, “yes”. Then she asked if I had a car. Again, I said “yes”. Next she asked if I would take her home. I said “Of course I would”.

So I went to get my car, cooled it down with A/C blasting, put her walker in my trunk and helped her to the passenger side. We left the hospice nurse and the husband to get home with the scooter on their own. On the way home she was very appreciative of my assistance and I asked her where she was from. She was from Poland and had come here through Canada, had 4 children in the area – one of which is a producer. (I can’t get away from the business, lol!)

I helped her out of the car and up the sidewalk to her home and was on my way. Shortly after arriving back at my apartment I remembered that her walker was still in my trunk. So I drove back to her place to drop it off. She was resting out on the front stoop and was surprised to see me again. She said she was going to be okay. I believed her. Growing up in Poland in the 20’s and 30’s. I’m sure she has seen many things tougher than a silly runaway scooter – even if her husband was driving it.

It totally made my day to be able to help a stranger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hRX79E75yA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vMXinr1N9w

2 comments:

DJ said...

Yo, Superman!

Y'all better watch out, doing good deeds for strangers, 'cause all that good karma is gonna hit ya like a bolt of lightning, when you least expect it!

Great story.

~Your ol' pal DJ

Unknown said...

Wow - you're a hero! ;)