I saw the meter maid stepping towards the back of my car to get license plate info. The meter had expired a few minutes before and like clockwork, she was there at the ready to write the ticket. I called out “Excuse me Ma’am!” and started to cross the street hopefully catching her in time. As I stepped off the curb, I felt a snap in my knee and down I went. The pain was excruciating. She looked up and saw me. I knew I had to get to her so I limped over as best I could, needing to catch my breath before I could say anything. She reached out to me to help me and asked if I was okay. We started to talk and she made it clear that she would not leave me until I was safely in my car.
She went from “meter maid” or “traffic enforcement officer” to caring human being. Actually, she was a lovely caring human being all along. It took me a while to realize that.
I do not know who she is. I never got her name. I reached out to the Parking Authority to try to find her and say thank you. They likely do not get too many of those kinds of letters.
And as I was sitting in my car, gaining my composure, I could not help but notice the person a couple of cars behind me frantically waving a ticket in his hand as he ran towards a confrontation with my good Samaritan.
So thank you my nameless good Samaritan. Thank you for sharing your humanity when I needed it.