Stories with Strangers

Welcome to week three of Stories with Strangers, the weekly article in which I talk to random strangers and get to hear a random story with them. I was given a delightful opportunity to talk to a fellow named Anthony. Anthony is twenty-seven years old and has been living in Colorado for the last five years. Anthony is the first of the people I have talked to who actually shared a story not about himself but rather eh shared a story more geared to a special experience he had. Anthony told me a story of when he was having an overall tough time in all areas of his life. The biggest issue he was facing however was his mom being in stage three of cancer. She had been in and out of the hospital for about almost two years and during that time Anthony had been there for every doctor appointment and chemo-therapy session. Anthony due to all his time spent with his mother he never had any real time to socialize with friends, and that in return caused him to isolate himself and be in a rough spot mentally. One night however after a rough day of chemotherapy, Anthony decided to call a uber to finally take him home after hours of being cooped up in a hospital. Anthony waited that night outside in the cold while it was snowing and just was so empty feeling inside but at the same time so filled with depression on the inside. After some thinking about some incredibly dark things, Anthony saw his uber driving pulling down the road so he knew it was his time to put on a smile for this random stranger. Anthony gets in the Uber and does small talk like he has done countless times before with the driver. The driver though after some small talk asked Anthony a question that none of his previous drivers had asked him. He asks Anthony what he was doing at the hospital. Anthony got choked up due to him not having opened up to anyone for the last couple of years. Anthony just simply said she was sick so the driver pushed a little harder and Anthony flooded the driver with all of the emotions he was feeling and shared how his mom had been struggling with cancer. After a long session of sharing his heart out with a random stranger, Anthony realized that his ride should have been only 20 minutes but instead he had been driving around with this driver for about an hour. When he asked the driver why this was he simply said that he could tell he needed a friend. The driver then went down to the street where Anthony lived and dropped him off. Anthony asked him how much he was going to charged and the driver simply said that there was not fee, the driver Anthony learned later on had actually dropped the fee. Anthony ended our conversation by just wanting me to tell you the reader that you should always be kind to others, you never know how much you’re going to impact their lives.