My Turn

"God does watch over us and does notice us,

but it is usually through someone else that He meets our needs."

~Spencer W. Kimball

Today was my turn.
I didn't know it ahead of time,
just like the last time
it was my turn...


I was at the mall shopping for a new white Sunday shirt
for my 13 year old son, Joseph
with Mr. Wonderful.
We'd just made our purchase 
and were headed towards to center of the mall
when I heard what I thought was a child's outburst of crying.

Being a mom to many,
I dismissed the cry--
thinking the child's mother would tend 
to whatever the needs were--
and kept walking.

But the crying outbursts kept going
and we were walking towards the cry
instead of away from it.

As we got closer to the escalators and elevators,
it became obvious that the crying was coming
from that area.
I fully expected to see a young mom struggling with her child,
but
that wasn't what I saw at all.

With his back towards me,
I could see a man kneeling over a 
young woman
who appeared to be stuck 
on the top of the escalator--
I thought perhaps a shoelace was caught in it
or other peice of clothing.

People were walking by them
but not stopping to help,
which seemed so odd to me.

Without another thought,
I hurried over to them.
As I looked into the young woman's eyes,
I knew
she was a special needs person.
She couldn't speak, other than the crying and pure panic yell
coming from her very frightened face.
She saw me
and like my own child
reached out for me.

I embraced her,
and softly said words of comfort,
"It's OK. You're OK. I'll help you."

I turned to the man and asked if he were her
"caregiver",
to which he replied, 
"I'm her friend."
Something wasn't right with him either,
so I focused on getting her OFF the still-running escalator
by holding her hands
then under her arms and shoulders
and bringing her to her feet...
which had no shoes on them.

I looked down and saw one shoe
the other was not in sight.
Her face lit up when she saw her one shoe
and I led her over to a bench
and kneeling down,
put her shoe on.

The guy was standing back
allowing me to do all of this for her,
not offering a word to her,
even though it seemed like
she knew him.

Again, I asked,
"Are you here with her day program?"
"I'm her friend." he answered.

I told him to stay by her
while Mr. Wonderful and I went down the escalator to look for her 
other shoe.
We found it at the bottom
along with a water bottle
and took them back to her.

She grabbed the water bottle and drank from it quickly...
she was calming down
and trying to communicate with me,
but I couldn't understand her.

I put her other shoe on,
tidied up her hair with some hairbands that had
fallen off at the escalator,
and about that time
a group of people, that called her by name,
"Audrey"
came by and I felt like it was time to go.

The man said nothing at all to us.
So I don't know what his deal was--
perhaps he was a peer of hers
or perhaps an overwhelmed chaperone.

I directed a mall security guard over to them
so he could make note of her accident
and then we walked away.

It was hard to walk away from her.
As we drove away from the mall parking lot,
I wanted to go back in the mall and find her
and make sure she was really Ok.
But that's just weird, right?

It's now nine hours later
and I'm still a little emotional over it.
I wonder if anyone will tell her mom
what happened to her today.
I wonder if she'll freak out the next time
someone tries to lead her to an escalator,
and they won't know why.
I wonder if I could have done more,
and what would that have been?

She was the best part of my day.
Because she reminded me that
WE are all God's hands
and we all get a turn to serve
if we choose to listen.