I regularly get the bus to get to the shops as I don’t have a car. I see all kinds of people from all walks of life. Yesterday, a very sad, somewhat disheveled middle aged man got on the bus I was on. The man was trying to explain he didn’t have any money for the fare or an Opal bus travel card as he had just got out of jail.
The bus driver was incredibly rude to him & he was in the process of telling him to get off the bus. The passenger looked so sad. I thought he was about to cry. Something triggered in me. I had to help. As the passenger was in the process of getting off the bus, I yelled out “WAIT”. Everyone else on the bus looked at me. I quickly raced to the bus door and gestured to the msn to hop back on and that I would pay his fare. He seemed shocked and very grateful. The driver was annoyed. I paid his fare on my account so that he could get off wherever he needed to. Once the man was seated, he just kept saying “thank you love, thank you”. He said several times, “no-one has ever been so kind to me”. “It’s OK I said. My stop was before his and as I stood up to start to head to the door, I handed the man $20 and simply said “for you, because “everyone” matters. The look on his face represented a thousand words and that frozen moment in time was profound to me. I. didn’t even know this man’s name, nor did he know mine, but I knew I’d help make his day. But what I didn’t expect was how much it’d made mine too.
My heart was smiling.
