Last week was my last week working for the NHS, and I got to hear one of those stories that make me so sure that I’m doing what I need to be doing at this time.
I met two older ladies – one of them was an inpatient, the other one was a visitor. And the woman who was a patient tells me that she felt and broke her arm, and that’s the reason why she’s there for rehab. Then she start talking a bit about what happened that day, how she fell in the garden and called the ambulance because she could not get up, but they were taking a long time to come…
And then she brings the other woman into the story.
I find out that she’s her neighbour, and seeing that she was laying on the ground she tried to get to her – but the gate to the garden was closed that day. So this woman (who uses a stick and was clearly struggling to move around things in that hospital bay) dropped everything, climbed the fence separating their gardens to reach the first woman. And she was saying (quite emotionally) that she could not bear the thought of her neighbour in pain laying on the ground alone.
Now, I know the part about climbing the fence with mobility issues is the most impacting part of the story, but for me the best part was witnessing how they were interacting afterwards – the amount of care, affection, appreciation they displayed even though they have only lived next to each other for a couple of years… It was so inspiring.
It reminded me that we all have that capacity to connect with others, to connect with strangers. And this type of connection is available to all of us if we nurture what is already there.
That is not to say that connection erases our limitations or makes us super human, but good connection does *decenter* those limitations. It reminds us that we are also strong, brave, caring… And that has its own kind of energy.
We need to be a bit more like these two older neighbours – because they’re badassess
