Help Old Ladies on the Side of the Road by Ed Dailey
I have passed many cars on the side of the road over the years. I try not to pass folks anymore. I'm not looking for a pat on my back, I am just voicing the question of a lady I met Sunday: "What’s wrong in this country when people won’t help an old lady?"
Yesterday, trying not to be late for a very important conversation, I stopped at the post office in Pasco to drop off mail. As I pulled in, I saw a lady 65 to 70 years old with grey hair standing outside her car with the hood up.
Even with time and schedule on my mind, I got out of the car and I asked her, "You do have someone coming to help you, right?”
she said no…and was at a point of crying.
I walked over and said, "You have the absolute worst male in the Tri-Cities to look at a car; I know nothing about cars.”
She said, "I just need a jump, my battery needs replacing. My son has said he would do it, and he hasn’t. I needed to check my mail, so I came over and I should have left the car running, but I didn’t, and it wouldn’t start. But I have jumper cables.”
I said, "That I can do."
But the sad point to this story is she had been waiting there with her hood up for over 15 minutes.
And folks, maybe 10 cars were coming and going and no one offered to help. And one guy she asked to help said he was in a hurry, sorry!
She had no cell phone; she felt helpless.
We got the car started. I offered to buy a battery for her and she said she had money set aside, she just didn’t know what to buy. I told her if she didn’t want to wait, if she went to a parts store they can tell her what kind and if she went to a big tire place they would do it for her.
Or call me, I think I can put in a battery. The point is no one helped.
Her words, "What’s wrong in this country when people won’t help an old lady?”
I would ask, why have we gotten away from helping anyone?
A little guy was lost at the fair so we called security over to help him. But several folks walked by without stopping.
We need to look past our fears of getting involved, our busy schedules, our problems with race, age, or looks, and HELP!
See what you can do to help: a call? some bucks? encouragement? your time? just being another human standing there saying, "Gee this sucks"? -- sharing the burden.
We used to stick together more in this country. You can change things -- starting with you.