Last night, I was with KuKuNehNeh(KKNN) at Yio Chu Kang(YCK) waiting for a bus when we saw a blind old man at the front of the queue. KKNN motioned towards him and said,
“Eh Dear. That is the old man whom I helped cross the road when it was raining cats and dogs.”
“Oh! Is he nice and friendly?”
“Yup!”
.
The reason why I asked if the blind man was nice is because I had times in my life when I tried to help people in need on the streets and got rejected rudely. An example was a number of years back when I saw this very old man struggling to alight from the front doors of a bus. He was trembling from the lack of strength in his legs and arms and I went ahead of him and on the road and held his arm to support. I don’t know where a weak old man with trembling limbs get his strength from but he immediately flinged my arm away and proceeded to yell at me in some dialect that I have no idea till now what it means. It was either his ego or his bad experience that didn’t want my help. I walked away.
So at YCK yesterday, I knew I might need to help this blind old man later and I made sure he is a nice guy first so that in the event that he is not, I am prepared to be floored by a blind old man. The old man got up the bus with help from an uncle and we got on as well. KKNN then proceeded to tell me that he will know exactly when to alight and true enough, immediately after the bus left the preceding bus stop, he pressed the bell.
We were alighting at the same stop and I approached him on the bus.
(All conversations are in Chinese and conveniently typed to you guys in English. Thank me all you want, but the truth is if I typed in Chinese, this post will have been ready by year 2010.)
“Uncle! You are getting down here right? Let me help you.”
“Thank you ah, young man!”
(Shiok! At this age, only an old man will call me young man. I should start making friends out of old folks.)
I supported him as he slowly made his way onto the bus stop pavement.
“Uncle ah, where you want to go? I bring you there.”
“I want to go to Blk 641. It’s around there.”
(He points at a direction and I thought he was being general and I looked at KKNN and she didn’t know where it was.)
KKNN LIVES NEARBY LOR! WAH LAU!
(I motioned for KKNN to go home first as I thought it would take some time for me to find BLK 641.)
“Uncle, let’s walk here.”
(I led him to the left.)
“No no! 641 is to the RIGHT!”
“Er… Okay…”
And true enough, Blk 641 is on the right and just behind the bus stop. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!
Blind old man who wants to go somewhere. Young able bodied man with a girlfriend who lives in the area. Blind old man SHOWS the couple the way to get there.
.
I then slowly walked him back to his lift lobby and he insisted on going up himself but not before bowing his head and thanking me.
Feels good to help him and feels even better to be appreciated despite lacking in my sense of direction.
WAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAH!!
