We roamed through backstreets in the old taxi with the newly acquainted Mr Reynolds. “Are you girls from England?” he asked, with hope in his voice.
“No, Australia.”
“I was hoping you could tell me if my name was English. I don’t know any of my family history. I’d like to know.”
Sarah went on to tell him about the history of Reynolds in England, something I knew nothing about. I could feel him smiling from the front seat.
“Do you have a wife or kids Mr Reynolds?” we asked.
“No. I had a dog 25 years ago. I still miss him. I do have a bobble-head dog at home though.”
A lump formed in my throat. As we paid our fare and walked into our hotel I asked Sarah, “I feel sorry for Mr Reynolds, don’t you?”
“He seems pretty happy to me, I don’t think you need to worry about him,” Sarah comforted me.
We stepped off the shuttle and into the holding area, to wait for another shuttle. “You can walk 10 minutes to your terminal sir,” we overheard the hostess tell a passenger. “I can’t walk 10 minutes,” the man responded with frustration, “I have prosthetic legs.”
I sat beside him and he struck up a conversation, “This airport is impossible!”
Having been shuttled from one place to another, I knew what he meant. LA airport is huge and overwhelming.
“They want me to walk to the terminal and I have prosthetic legs,” he says knocking on them to prove it to me.
“Were you born without legs? Or when did you lose them?” I ask, anxious that I was being inappropriate.
“One year ago. I was in a car accident.”
He shared the story of losing his legs, being determined to walk and refusing to stay in hospital. I sat with my mouth agape in amazement, tears in my eyes.
“You’re amazing,” was all I could muster.
We said goodbye and made our way to our shuttle, inspired by his personal story.
As she swept eyeshadow across my lids a necklace dangled from her neck, a silver heart with a small thumbprint. Her child, I thought.
She placed her hand over the pendant and her heart sighed, “My goddaughter died 5 weeks ago. She was only 4.”
Tears welled. I could feel her pain. I could sense the mother’s pain. I ached. She passed me a tissue and told the heartbreaking story.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I don’t usually tell people this. I don’t usually share this much.”
We talked about the normal and mundane, all insignificant to the tale just shared.
She lifted her shirt to reveal a red scar across her belly, “This time last year I had ovarian cancer. I had them removed.”
I gasped, “I’m so sorry.”
She shared the stories of the diagnosis and the treatment as she brushed blush across my cheeks. She told me of the fear and the life after the cancer. “I’m really sorry,” she said, “I honestly don’t usually share. We should be talking about you.”
“It’s okay,” I assured, “It’s nice to hear about you. It makes me grateful. It makes me want to live and quit whining. It makes me want to hug my daughter. Please don’t be sorry. I’m grateful for you sharing. Thank you.”
I have tears in my eyes. There are people out there with such incredible strength. Going off to hug my daughters now. xx
Beautiful post Chantelle, wonderful x
that was a wonderful read. makes you really think about how you never know exactly what somebody has being through.
justjump…
saywhatyourheartwants.blogspot.com
beautiful. heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.
Wonderful stories Chantelle. We have a couple of sayings in my family because we seem to have had more than our fair share of bad luck over the years.
My daughter – says 'stand up, brush the dust off your shoulders (as if after an explosion, if you get my meaning, stare straight at the world and say 'Huh – IS THAT the best you've got?'
My youngest son who is only 12 bless him says 'Bad stuff only happens to good people because they're the only ones who can cope with it!'
Lou 🙂 xxx
Thanks for sharing these beautiful stories. Thank you x
These little moments have made me so teary and so grateful.
I often want to slap myself for taking my life for granted and these moments are just another little reminder, thanks for sharing them xoxo
Oh my goodness. Divine like you – hon they are telling you because you are such a beautiful person, they would've sensed that.
XOX
Beautiful stories. But did you have to make me cry right before the school run? Now I need to go fix my face.
how amazing that all those people opened up to you like that! thankyou for sharing!
Chantelle, THANK YOU for posting this. I'm having a shocker of a day today for no reason at all, and this post is a timely reminder that there's no reason for me not to be happy and grateful for all that I have xxx
Wah!!
I love how people open up to you. You are a very open-uppable sort of gal, Chantelle. I think when I met you I was way too huggy and kissy, but it's only because I already felt like you were part of the fabric of my life.
There's just something about you, girl. x
I've just received 3 fingerprint charms – One for my husband for Father's day. One for myself, and one for my daughter – a gift from the person who took the prints – because siblings are often left out.. Avery died 4.5 weeks ago…
I cannot wait to give my family their gifts… one day someone will ask each of us about our pendants – and we will be able to tell his story too – just like the woman did for you…
xx
Kristie
What a completely lovely post Chantelle. I'm always captivated by people's stories and there are just so many sad, yet inspirational ones to hear. It takes a special person to trust enough to share stories of heartache with. I'm sure your understanding was appreciated as much to these people, as their experiences were to you xo
ohhhh so many stories xxx I realised when I went to melbourne without the kids that I had the time to talk to people and was talking to a young girl on the plane, 20 and in the navy but they split her and her partner and sent her to sydney, she had a baby who was the same age as elodie and got to see him once a month or two. I felt so frsutrated for her and talked to her and realised next time I complain about the kids going psycho I'll remember her and her situation, Opens your eyes to things. beautiful storiesxxxxx
corrie:)
Such beautiful, precious stories!
People really are just amazing. We have so much heart ache and happiness and horrible people and honest amazing people all mingling around.
Lovely stories. Thanks for sharing – reminded me how lucky I am.
Please for christ sake help this poor boy from Haiti
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I will be grateful to you
God bless you
It's funny how you meet people and they share stories, that happens to me often too. I just take it as I was meant to be there and hear that story for some reason…