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Goodness

Last month, I had merienda with a friend whom I have not seen since her family migrated to the US 22 years ago. The little boy and his dad stayed in a restaurant, consuming lots of pizza. 

After my merienda, we walked around the mall. The little boy requested for some fries. While waiting for our order, my husband, who was carrying our backpack, checked out some shops. It was during this time that R vomitted - a lot - probably due to overeating. I must have looked really helpless with a toddler who was spewing food all over the floor. I had nothing on me, not even a hankie. My husband was nowhere in sight. I was trying to catch vomit with my hand but of course that didn’t really help. And despite all the stress I was feeling, I was most worried about R’s well being. I wanted to soothe him and make sure he was okay. I felt so bad because he kept on apologizing for making a mess and I had to reassure him that it was okay. 

Admittedly, I felt lost and alone. But I had to be on top of things because I was the adult. Although I wanted to cry because of the situation we were in, what made me really want to cry was the goodness that the people around showed us. Someone offered to hold the juice I was carrying so I had 2 free hands to attend to R. Somebody gave me a plastic bag, saying she was not sure if it would help but it just might. Another mom gave me wet tissues to clean up R and myself. And the most angelic of them all was a guy who worked for the mall. He was probably on his day off because he was wearing civilian clothes and he was carrying several shopping bags. But he did not hesitate to help. He calmly told me not to worry, assured me that everything was okay, and asked me to please drop on the floor whatever vomit I caught with my hand. He called someone on his cellphone, described our location, and asked someone from housekeeping to come and clean the mess. He  must have sensed that R and I were getting uneasy so he told us it was okay, we could go ahead and leave, and assured us that they’ll take care of everything. 

I held back my tears the entire time but I kept on telling my son how lucky we were that strangers did not hesitate to help us. It would have been an embarrassing incident but all those people made me feel blessed despite the awkward situation. I thanked each one of them profusely and I pray that they will be blessed for all the good they’ve done for us. 

Side note: R was wondering why we were talking to strangers, contrary to what we’ve been telling him. So I ended up giving a lecture on good and bad strangers. :)

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