I was having lunch at Zaxby’s when I overheard a young man laughing about an older man in the bathroom. He was joking that the man couldn’t get off the toilet.
Concerned, I walked into the restroom to check on him. I could hear him crying. I asked if he was okay, and he told me his legs were too weak to stand and that he had left his cane by the door.
I asked him to unlock the stall, helped him stand up, and pulled his pants up for him. He was wearing a Vietnam veteran hat. He hugged me and said through tears,
“I’m 69 years old, and this is the most embarrassing moment of my life.”
I shook his hand, thanked him for his service, and walked him out to the lobby. Then I made the young man who had been laughing come over and apologize to him.
The moral of the story:
Getting older happens to all of us. There is never a reason to be rude or unkind to a stranger—you never know what someone is going through.
Credit: Marcus Pass
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