A Random Act of Kindness

Montreal, with its lovely old buildings and French culture, is a favorite family destination for weekends away. One weekend this winter, I arrived in Montreal after a night of freezing rain. Roads, which had been salted, were safe, but many sidewalks were still dangerous sheets of glare ice.

As I walked down the street, carefully avoiding icy patches, I suddenly approached a long stretch of sidewalk all glassy and white. I should add that when I say I was walking down the street, I was doing just that. Montreal is a city built on a mountain (Mount Royal - hence the name, Montreal) and many of the streets are at an incline - a detail you usually don't notice unless you are tired and walking uphill, or when the street is very icy, as it was that day, and you are trying to maneuver a slippery slope.

The road would be safer to walk on, but to get to it, I would have to cross a sheet of icy sidewalk - or go back the way I had come. Never one to go back, I began to gingerly move across the ice when the inevitable happened: I slipped and fell, sitting down hard on the cold, hard surface.

I sat there for a moment, slightly stunned. The only thing hurting was my right hand, which had instinctively gone out to break my fall. But it felt bruised, not broken. Still I hesitated. Getting up would be risky: if I tried to stand, would I embarrass myself by falling down again, perhaps hurting myself even more in another fall?

As I sat there, wondering what to do, I noticed that a car driving past had pulled over. The young driver quickly got out and approached me.

Are you all right? he asked.
I nodded.
Here, let me help you up, he said, stretching out his hand. Then in the sure-footed way of young men who think nothing of running, let alone walking, on ice, he led me to the safety of the road, and went back to retrieve the bag I had dropped.
Do you have far to walk? he asked.
No, I'm just heading to that next building, I replied.
Well, walk on the road. It's safer, he cautioned, as I thanked him and proceeded on my way.

I was so thankful for his generous gift of a helping hand, just when I needed it most.

Would I have done the same for a stranger, I wondered, if I had been driving by? Would I have pulled over and stopped, or merely watched to see if the person could manage on his own - and if not called 9-1-1?

I, like so many, am wary of getting involved in other people's problems - but how much safer and friendlier a city feels when strangers look out for one another!