The Passer-By

Though it happened eons ago, I still fondly remember this stranger - this passerby, who stopped to offer his help, if not, perhaps I wouldn't be alive today.

Another car collided into the car I was driving. Everything then was a blur - the car spun a few rounds and it crashed into the barricade separating the lanes and the impact sent me knocking against the windscreen. Pain engulfed me and it was the only thing I felt. My head was groggy and I vaguely recall seeing the driver of the other car standing by the kerb, talking on the phone. I struggled to reach my mobile phone, which was no longer at the place where I had left it earlier on - the crash must have flung my phone somewhere else.

I must have drifted in and out of consciousness then - because everything that happened after that seemed to be nothing, but a distant dream. Then this man came running to me and tried shaking me. He threw me several questions to which I was too weak to answer. I could barely make out the words he said "Help - trained medic...open your eyes...hold my hand...name..." All I wanted to do was to close my eyes and sleep, but that stranger kept shaking me, kept squeezing my hand, kept...

And the next thing I knew, I was in an ambulance. I couldn't feel my head, nor my limbs, but I could hear the medics asking for my name. By then, I could offer a reply, and I drifted off to sleep. I'm so glad that the stranger kept me awake by his shouts and shaking - who knows what could have happened if I've drifted into unconsciousness from the start? I've tried posting a thank you advertisement in the national newspapers, but to no avail.

Nevertheless, his simple gesture of kindness (though it was pretty annoying to me back then, because all I wanted to do was sleep), was what could have kept me alive. And for that, I'm deeply grateful.

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Comments

good example

Posted 10 months ago by Asuka Kitahara from Shibuya,Japan

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