The kindness of strangers

The wife and I were running errands so she decided we’d have lunch out. The only problem is that here in Small Town America, lots of other people have the same idea, especially since the local economy is kept alive by tourists. Plus, it was Saturday.

I let the wife out in front of the restaurant. She has mobility issues and often uses a wheelchair when we’re out and about. I unloaded the wheelchair from the back and placed it on the sidewalk. The wife took it into the restaurant while I had to drive around trying to find a parking space. The tourists were out in force today. I ended up having to park on the next street over then walk back to the restaurant.

There was a long wait to get a table and we were both starving by the time we got seated. It was a good lunch, and filling. The place has the best potato salad. I had that and a philly wrap – a tortilla wrap stuffed with beef, peppers, onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato and cheese. Yummy!

After we finished eating I was pushing the wife back out. Our waitress stopped me and asked where I parked. I told her I had to park on the next street over. She said that was going to be too far to push the wheelchair all that way. She grabbed one of the busboys and asked him to stay with the wife while I went to get the car.

We got to the street and it just so happened that the one handicapped parking space had just opened up. The plan was for me to go get the car, while they waited in font of the restaurant, and then I could park in the handicapped space to pick her up.

I trotted back to the car and took it back to get the wife. As I arrived I was about to pull into the handicapped space when a man stepped in front of the car and tried to wave me off. I tried to indicate I needed to get in the space. He pointed at my wife. I nodded and pointed at her too, then at the passenger seat. He go the message and let me swing into the space.

It turns out that he was also eating at the restaurant and someone else had tried to take the parking space before I got there. He waved them off so I could park. He explained the situation to the other driver and told him to make a loop around the block and he could have the space as soon as I left.

As I was getting this information from the other diner, the busboy was busy getting the wife to the car and seated in the front seat.

I thanked the other diner and put the wheelchair in the back of our vehicle. I waited a few minutes as the other driver made his way around the block. The diner flagged the guy to stop so I’d have enough room to back out. I told the diner to thank the other driver for me, pulled out, waved to the other drier and headed home.

I don’t know if that situation would have played out the same way in Houston. You get the nice person who might hold a door open for you if they see you trying to get a wheelchair through it, but I don’t know that anyone pulling into the handicapped spot would have cared that I was trying to get my wife into the car. They would have taken the spot and walked away.

Anyway, it is nice to see that there are still situations where the kindness of strangers comes into play.

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