by Ralph | May 28, 2019 | Story
It had been a long day of errands across London. I was at my favourite Camden Town sushi bar sitting on a high stool enjoying a glass of wine and my favourite sushi meal. All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe. My head started swimming and I had an excruciating pain in my chest. I have a clear recollection of thinking “This is it and I have so much more to do and say”.
The next thing I knew I was lying on the floor in a pool of blood and a diminutive, very serious looking Japanese girl in a black and bloodstained apron was kneeling close beside me–bandaging my head with a long white towel, then holding my hand and murmuring in my ear over and over again: “It’s ok, you’re going to be alright”.
Two ambulance staff arrived and got me up. They walked me ever so gently to a waiting ambulance. Their cheerful banter as they conducted some basic tests to check whether I had had a heart attack reassured me that I was no longer about to die. I was soon at University College Hospital where over the next three hours I went through multiple further tests to see whether I had suffered any serious brain injury and finally had my head wound stitched up. The medical conclusion: a piece of sushi has got stuck in my throat and, to my great good fortune, been unstuck by my fall.
The care and kindness I received from the porter who wheeled me in from the ambulance, from the two nurses and the three doctors who treated me, including the senior consultant in charge of A&E that night, were extraordinary.
I went home in a taxi happy to be alive and truly thankful. Hurray for the NHS!
The next day my head was very sore, but I was well enough to return to the sushi bar with a large bunch of flowers for my little Japanese saviour. I simply said to her:” This is a small token for your extraordinary kindness last night”. She replied: “Thank you, but I was just doing my job”.
by Ralph | May 13, 2019 | Story
Retrieving my boat from the river, I forgot to apply my handbrake to the car. Unfortunately, it rolled into the river. I was in a very difficult situation. Several on-lookers did nothing to help. One boatman came to help and he gave me a rope and he rang a friend to help. His friend turned up, a complete stranger. He helped me tow the car out of the water and to
recover my boat.
I had two wet £10 notes in my pocket and gave them to the man. He looked at them and he gave me one look saying it was too much. Not sure myself he had driven 20 miles, spent an hour with me, and helped me out of a mess. A very kind man!
by Ralph | May 13, 2019 | Story
When my big orange dog was badly bitten — grrr — two lovely friends gave him some big bag of anchovies wrapped in yummy ‘hammy’ chews. This made him very happy, he forgot he had a sore leg. It was very kind and thoughtful and it made him happy. I’ve written ‘happy’ three times, but it really did!!! Made him smile.
by Ralph | Apr 16, 2019 | Story
It is hard to explain the situation in northern Nigeria, but where I lived was quite remote, no other expatriate in my village and no electricity. So, it was very dark and quite bleak being on the edge of the desert. The school where I worked was 24 kilometres away.
After school one evening I went into the town before coming home. When I tried to put the headlights on the horn went on but the lights didn’t. I fiddled with the lights. Nothing except the horn. I prayed, fully expecting things to work normally. Still they didn’t. I didn’t know what to do as it was so dark, I couldn’t see to drive and the horn was still going. I remembered that there was a permanent roadblock set up by the army on the road from me home to school, so I decided to walk there and ask what to do, knowing that they like to make the decisions.
The walk was much further than I had anticipated. (When I think about it now it gives me goose bumps thinking of how vulnerable I was.) Anyway, I spoke to the soldiers, told them my predicament and they sent a young boy to accompany me back to my car. They also chose one of their own group to come back to my car and then to drive his motor bike ahead of me to shine his headlight on the road. When we arrived at my village, he delivered me to my house, refused any payment and left.
The fact that he would take no money for his time, petrol, etc. was to me a gift from God. Also, being a woman, white, and a Christian makes the whole thing very remarkable. God was certainly with me to protect and care for me.
by Ralph | Mar 24, 2019 | Story
I was issued a brand-new iPhone from work. It was glossy and gleamy, and as slippery as silk. So slippery that in fact it slipped right out of my trouser pocket in the back seat of a London cab. I was so focused on my clients that when I left the car after paying the cabbie, I did so without seeing my new black work phone still lying on the seat.
Soon after we ordered our dinner, I realised what had happened. Damn! Would I get my phone back? No. Would my boss be angry with me? Yes.
One of my guests kindly lent his phone so I could call my number in the hopes that the cabbie might pick it up. It rang once, twice, and someone did pick up. It turned out to be another passenger. He said don’t worry and to text my address to my phone he held and he’ll post it back to me. I was so grateful, I could have cried. I did as he instructed and later realized that I didn’t get his name or number.
A few days went by without my phone arriving. I began to wonder. Did he send the phone? Did it get lost en route? Or did he simply play a mean game and flogged the phone?
The phone did arrive about a week later. I was so glad and grateful. And also a bit guilty of doubting his kindness with my impatience. I sent a box of chocolate and a thank you card to the return address on the envelope.
Since then, I got a bright yellow rubber case so that the phone was no longer slippery and I would see it even in the back of a night cab.
by Ralph | Mar 18, 2019 | Story
I was very heavily pregnant and living in Surrey and walking my two dogs on a common near our house there. I don’t know why but I suddenly passed out and obviously let go of the dogs! Next thing I knew there was an old man trying to bring me to and he had both my dogs too. He walked me to his cottage and made me a cuppa, then phoned Nick to say he had me safe. Lovely kind old chap! We dropped him a thank you letter and bottle.
