At a traffic light stop on my way home, an old lady knocked on my window and asked if I could give her a ride to her home which is on the way to where I was heading. She said she had just attended Church and was trying to catch a bus home, but her knees hurt from arthritis. I almost asked her why not call for a Grab ride but decided against it. Hesitant at first, I agreed to give her a ride as she looked desperate.
Once inside the car, she started telling me her life story without me even asking. Her name is Dorothy Lee, 75 years old, unmarried, worked her entire life as a kitchen hand in Singapore hotels and saved enough money to buy a house after retiring. Her only close relatives now are a couple of nieces/nephews who are now too busy with their own lives and they have not called/visited as often as they used to. As I listened to her the thought crossed my mind that here is one lonely soul who needed someone to talk to.
She asked me to drop her off at the "broken bus stop". It was a bus stop that had been knocked down by a lorry and all that's left is a blue slab to indicate where it once stood. Before alighting, she asked me if I live alone and I answered in the affirmative. She then thanked me for the ride and said "I hope our lives will not be like this broken bus stop".
Thank you Dorothy for that sobering analogy. Yes, life can indeed be a broken bus stop....once standing strong and providing shelter but now just a broken slab of cement overrun by the useless weeds of time!
