Story Time

So I thought I'd take a break from the boring background info and try telling my favorite story from my time as a taxi driver.

I'm trying to tell this from memory, some of the details might be sketchy.

So one night I get a call to pick up a passenger at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center's Emergency entrance.  I pull in front and there is an older Latino woman standing there and a girl about 5 years old sitting in a wheel chair with a blanket wrapped around her.  There was also a security guard standing behind the wheelchair.    The guard picked up the little girl and placed her into the back seat of my taxi, on the passenger side and the older woman got in on the driver side.  I think I was handed a voucher which took care of the payment and also had the address listed.  At some point I realized the woman does not understand English.

I had several thoughts going through my mind as I was driving them to their destination.  The girl looked to be either too sick and/or too tired to get up and walk to the home we were going to.  Also, that this woman might not be able to pick up and carry her into the home.

So when we got to the house, I quickly got out of the taxi and walked around to passenger side of the car, opened the door and picked the girl up in my arms.  I then nodded in the direction of the door of the home.  She must have understood what I meant.  I followed her into the home, and the door revealed a staircase going up to the second floor.  I followed her up, and she pointed me to a bedroom just off to the left of the top of the stairs.  I lay the girl down and returned to where the woman stood.  I think she said thanks, in Spanish, and I know I gave her a hug and told her "Dios te bendiga" which means "God bless you".  I said goodnight in Spanish, and headed down the steps and got back into my taxi and went back to work.

I'm not trying to pat my own back.  I just wanted to help people understand why I found taxi driving to be so much fun.  It was times like that where I got to help random people do small things, like open doors, carry groceries, carry passengers, etc...  There were occasions that I gave free rides, like when I would pick up a young couple with an infant going to the hospital at 1am.  I just felt that if they were going to the hospital at that hour, they must feel it's a life or death situation and I wanted to bless them.

I will go into details about my taxi driving experience at another time.  I will say that I tried every night to measure my success by the smiles and thanks and not by the dollars and cents I received...