Yellow Cab Stories for the Heart: Story 1 (10-2-2010)

It was about 4:00  in the morning a few nights ago.  I got a call to the Emergency room at the University of Iowa hospital.  As I arrived, I noticed a nurse open up the door and help an elderly lady outside.  I got out of my cab, opened up the passenger door and helped her inside the cab.

Our ride wasn't even a mile long, but sometimes it's not the length of a conversation as much as it's the quality of the conversation that makes it something you'll hold onto forever.   I'll certainly never forget this amazing woman or the feeling of hope that she instilled within me.

As we sat at the stop light on Burlington and Riverside,  she put her finger up to a hole in her throat and asked me looking at my notebook, "Are those your notes for school?"

"No", I replied, "they're just for writing"

"Oh, you're a writer?"

"Wanna be writer", I laughed, "It's just a dream of mine"

"What kind of writer do you want to be?"
I have tried very hard to restrain myself from talking about my writing to too many people, because I realize that I can get very egotistical about it and even at times arrogant.  However, she did ask, so I told her all about my goals as a novelist.

As we parked the car, she looked over at me and smiled.

"Do you know what my goal in life was?"

"No", I said giving off a vibe that was more than obvious that I did want to know what it was.

"I wanted to be a mother"

We both laughed as she continued, "A little simpler than trying to be the next Stephen King, but it was my dream"

"It's not what the dream is", I gave her a personal belief of my own, "but how passionate you are about it.  Being a good mom isn't easy.  It takes just as much dedication, sacrifice and devotion as being a good writer"

She smiled at me again and then reached into her purse.  She pulled out a black and white picture and handed it to me.  It was a smashed up car that looked to be in such horrendous condition that I had a hard time believing anyone could have survived it.

"1973", she said, "Drunk driver bumped me from behind into the other lane and a Truck smashed right into me"

I felt a rage of anger go through my body as I thought of how unfair life could be to someone for it to allow the wrongs of another person to have such a negative effect on an innocent person.

"I was eight months pregnant with my first child"

She paused.  My anger for the drunk driver heightened and was joined by one of absolute sorrow.  I looked from the picture back at her not wanting to even think about the pain of not only losing a dream, but a child.   I sat in the driver's seat, and prepared myself for her to tell me that she lost her baby in the accident.

She reached into her purse and pulled out another picture.

I took it from her hand.  It was a beautiful tall, thin woman with the straightest brightest shade of red hair that you ever have seen.

"My Daughter"

My tears just as I expected they would came, but for a much different reason than I expected.

She then told me all about her growing up and how much of a joy it was to raise her and live out her dream of being a mom.   It was such an inspiring story, one that I'll share fifty years from now the same way I share it with you today.

As I went to help her out of the cab, she told me that she was in too much pain to make it all the way to her room.  I asked her if she thought she could make it with me acting as a crutch.   She said she didn't think so as she got on her phone and called a friend to bring down her wheel chair.

Her friend came downstairs, but didn't have the wheel chair.

"Can you come up to her room and help me get her wheelchair" she asked.

"Sure"  I said.  As I went up to her room with her friend, I was expecting to grab a push wheel chair and wheel it down to her.  I was in for a big surprise when I saw that it was instead one of those huge mechanical ones.  Trying to see if it had some sort of way to be pushed from behind, I came to the conclusion after messing around with it that it didn't.   Her friend suggested to me that I sit in and ride it down.

Before I knew it, I was flying around the halls of this retirement home on a motorized Wheel chair.  To be quite honest, the chair moved a lot faster than I thought it would and it was rather fun.

When I got down to the cab, she laughed looking at me in her wheel chair.

"You know" she said as I got out of it and helped her into it, "Not many cab drivers would have done that for me. I really wish I had more money to tip you better than the dollar I gave you.  You're a good kid, I wish I had a better tip to give you"

"You already have" I smiled as I got back into my cab and gave a little wave, " 'mom' "