Tonight I carted a sobbing Grace, a car seat encapsulated Luke, and one extra, sweet four-year-old girlie to a Minute Clinic seconds before it closed. We had just fled a Christmas performance at Grace's downtown Columbus ballet studio to take care of a self-diagnosed ear infection that started as a minor annoyance in the afternoon and became a full on four-year-old trauma in the evening.
The scene unfolded like this: Ten minutes before the end of ballet class, I took a peek through the parent window and saw a red-faced, tear-stained Grace trying to make it to the end-of-class-performance without falling apart. We made eye contact and the pain in her face killed me. I motioned for her to come out to me and held her while I tried to figure out my next move.
The people around me responded like this: Almost instantly, the men and women in the room (most of whom I barely knew) began to help me problem solve. My speech was peppered with a string of incomprehensible phrases like "husband gone six days" and "don't know area well" and "have friend of Grace's staying weekend" and "phone dead" and "baby needs bed."
Their speech was peppered with completely comprehensibly phrases like "there's a minute clinic about a mile down the street" and "they're super nice there" and "go south on High until you hit a Burger King" and "let me help calm your baby" as they searched directions and hours on their iphones and gave me encouraging words. As I walked out, one lady slipped a piece of paper into my diaper bag with an address and simple directions to reinforce all that had been said.
Once I got to the clinic and found out they didn't take my insurance, the attending physician walked a frazzled, almost crying me through everything I could do to ease Grace's pain tonight before taking her to the doctor in the morning, helped me figure out dosages and spacing, assured me she would be fine, and told me I was a wonderful mother.
Now I recognize that on the scale of parenting trauma, the happenings of tonight rank very low. Everyone is okay, all three kiddos are sleeping peacefully, and I have since had the chance to eat two bowls of peppermint stick ice cream and watch Modern Family. All is right in my world. But as I contemplated the events that transpired, I can't help but feel completely overwhelmed by the kindness that was shown to me by a group of familiar and unfamiliar faces. And it's not the first time.
This past month I have been the recipient of an overwhelming amount of kindness. And not because my life has been uncommonly hard or stressful. But because I have been surrounded by friends, family members, and complete strangers that have seen a need, and filled it. Seen a service they could perform, and acted on it. Let me count the ways...
:a man on an airplane saw a young mother traveling alone with a baby and took it upon himself to entertain and hold that baby for a good portion of the flight and then proceeded to carry her ridiculously heavy diaper bag off the airplane
:a friend felt a need to write a kind, thoughtful email to a girl who'd been struggling that very day to feel good about herself (unbeknownst to the friend) and did it
:a family member (or two...) discovered a car battery dead and unresurrectable, bought a new one and installed it, all while said car owners slept in after a long night
:a family member heard about a stressful weekend and a sick child and showed up with dinner
:a man in a hurry to get on his way helped a young mother carry her stroller down the stairs because the elevator was broken
: a family of four helped that same young mother carry all of her bags to the curb, going in the opposite direction of their own destination
: a cheerful lady in a mall restroom picked up a spilled diaper bag and tipped over stroller, while the owner of said items nursed her baby in a chair
And then, as already stated, there was tonight. A group made up mostly of strangers rallied around a sick girl and her mom and got them to the Minute Clinic in time to get good advice and kind, calming words from a doctor at the end of her shift. Does life get any better? There are so many good people out there. I think I ran into all of them this past month. And where did I find them? Ohio, Minnesota, Utah, mid-air. They're everywhere. I wish they could all know what their service meant to me. What it has inspired in my heart. I am completely overwhelmed.
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