Metropolitan Diary

DEAR DIARY:

This happened to me the other day, and I was so moved, I thought New Yorkers should know about this.

I was crossing Lexington Avenue to catch a bus downtown when I noticed a bus waiting at the stop. As a visually impaired person with a cane, I tried to walk as quickly as I could.

When I arrived at the bus stop, the bus had already pulled away.

I was waiting for the next bus when a man approached me.

“May I help you onto the bus?” he asked.

“But it’s already moved on,” I told him. “It’s gone to the corner, so it’s not likely the driver will let you take me aboard.”

“I am the driver,” he said, and I realized he’d left a bus full of people waiting while he helped one astonished and grateful passenger walk half a block to climb aboard.

Would Ralph Kramden be proud of the softies of his profession driving our city buses? I am. Eleanor Roth

From the New York Times. This seems extraordinary, but it is much closer to typical. I have been amazed by the kindnesses people perform for me, embarrassed that I was probably not so helpful before.