Everything is awful, but sometimes the universe is also okay

[Putgolzin]

I saw this on my Twitter feed and thought it was pretty beautiful, a lady had just witnessed this play out in front of her in the east end of Toronto:

 

Sunday night #Scarborough bus story: Two women in hijabs sit across from each other. They look at each other. Finally they speak, quietly, shyly. After a few exchanges, tears start to flow and they become very excited, hugging and jumping up and down.

 

They are so excited, and they speak rapidly to their teenaged daughters. Who in turn cry with their mothers. There is a big commotion and everyone on the bus is curious. It takes a grandmother from a different culture at the back, who finally yells out, ‘What happened?’ 

 

One of the daughters tries to explain to the bus. From what I gathered, the two women grew up with each other and were best friends in school. But were separated when one of the women’s mother married someone else and they moved away. The first woman wrote her friend letters.

 

But to no avail, there was a never a response. The second woman never received the letters. She believes her stepfather hid them. The daughter used the words to describe her mother’s time - a ‘cruel situation’ in a flat voice. When she said this, the other daughter touched her. 

 

They didn’t know each other, but this teenaged girl felt this pain. As far as I can tell they are both happy here in Canada. The daughters knew of the women because they were told stories of their mother’s dear friendship. The daughters exchanged texts and social media handles. 

 

They decided to get off together, and when they did, the bus cheered for them. For lost friendships, renewed. Even the bus driver honked his horn a bit. Everyone was smiling.

 

Everything is awful, but sometimes the universe is also okay. /end

 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by nzan

[skategal]

Love this story, thanks for sharing.  I find myself these days spending more time looking for the good, the funny, the positive as everything else is so oppressive.  I'm more careful now what I watch on TV, become addicted to HGTV because any problem is resolved in 60 minutes or less LOL!  Magic of TV.  

 

All we can do is support each other, try to be the best human we can, do the right thing, care for others, we will get through this.  Our ancestors have overcome much worse, world wars and pandemics without benefit of science and technology (not sure if technology is a benefit?) 

[Phil_314]

Good reminder to cherish the smallest moments and connections that we have.  Thanks for sharing

[smithers joe]

great heart felt story. my story, was really my mom’s story. we were very poor and mom who had, had rhumatic fever as a young girl suffered through many small heart attacks in her life. she had 11 kids but 5 died at birth or within their first years. mom was in the hospital a lot and dad had little work, ( the dirty thirties) decided to let another family adopt their daughter. i wasn’t even born yet. years later, we had all grown up, my other sister remembered her and started looking for her. well she found her living in yelm washington married and had 4 teenage kids. my sister didn’t even know she was adopted. that first meeting between my mother and sister, still brings tears to my eyes. oh the raw emotions. poor mother had lost 5 kids at birth and had a daughter taken away from her, i know she most have been heart broken.