Do you know what it is like to fall flat on your face? I was rushing home for a 9:00 pm appointment. And then I fell.
Slowly I lifted my head and the blood gushed out of my nose like an open fire hydrant.
“Are you alright?” Someone thrust a wad of tissues in my hand.
There goes my appointment.
“Can we call an ambulance?”
“I am o.k.”
“You are not o.k. You are bleeding.”
By now I surrounded by people.
“My husband is just a block away. He is a doctor.”
I fumbled for my phone, hit speed dial.
“I fell. I am on 73rd and Second.” I looked up for a landmark. “By Ridgewood Savings Bank.”
One of the women bent down, “I am a nurse. Pinch your nostrils with the tissue.”
And then my phone rang. It was my 9:00 phone appointment.
“Sabeeha, its Robin.”
“I am in an accident. I can’t talk.”
Now I felt worse, cancelling on her. I have to call her later and explain.
Half sitting, half sprawled, I waited, and they all waited with me until my husband arrived.
I don’t remember their faces, and if I run into them again, I won’t know that these were the men and women who broke stride and stayed with me. Maybe one of them also had a 9 o’clock, had to relieve the nanny, or report to nurse duty. But they stopped in their tracks to stand by a fallen woman and stop the bleeding.
Dear guardian angels, if you are reading this, know that your families are the luckiest.
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