Making a difference

What did you do today that made a difference in the life of someone else?

One of the more vivid memories of my childhood was when I was driving with my mom and some of my siblings. I am pretty sure it was on the way home from a doctor’s appointment for my sister. We were driving through an urban area and my mom quickly pulled over because there was a man laying on the sidewalk. As we got closer we could see he was having a seizure, she sent one of my siblings to run to a nearby home to get someone to call the police while getting a blanket from our vehicle to help protect him from the broken glass that littered the sidewalk and curb and to stay with him until more help arrived. We left shortly after and went on with our day.

I was reminded of that long-ago incident on Sunday afternoon while driving near the UW-Stevens Point Campus. We had driven down to Stevens Point to visit my daughter and to pick up my sister who came out from New Jersey for a visit. My sister had flown into Central Wisconsin Airport and had spent a couple days visiting with Beth and going to quilt shops and helping at the annual bonspiel my daughter’s college curling program holds.

We had planned on coming down and seeing a musical on campus before bringing Nicole back to Medford with us to visit this week. As far as plans go, it was a good plan.

Unfortunately when we got to the theater on campus there was a sign on the door letting us know that due to illness the play would be canceled for that day. Our alternative plan had us all heading to the grocery store to make sure Beth had enough food in her cupboard to last her until Christmas break. As we were driving down the road we happened to glance down a passing side-street and saw a larger person laying on their back in the middle of the sidewalk not appearing to be moving. My wife was driving and quickly turned off to circle the block and see if the person needed help.

The woman was conscious, and said she was diabetic and had COPD and her blood sugar was low and that she didn’t remember collapsing. My son got a towel from the car for her to use as a cushion for her head. She complained about feeling nauseous so my wife helped to roll her on her side and knelt beside her on the pavement while my sister held her hand. Other people had already called the ambulance and within a few minutes it arrived and we helped them get her positioned onto the cart before we headed off to run our errands.

Altogether, it was probably about 10 minutes of our day and beyond my sister joking that we would make a point of not looking down side streets as we were driving anymore, was not overly discussed.

I would like to think that if we had not stopped someone else would have, but in a time when many people are afflicted with tunnel vision, it is just as likely people simply wouldn’t have noticed someone in need. But for happening to glance at the right time, we would have missed it ourselves.

Those decades ago, my mom could have easily justifi ed not stopping with a car full of young children in a somewhat dodgy area. The fact that she didn’t hesitate to help someone in need is a lesson that has stuck with me over the years and it was good to see that my children have carried on the lesson of not hesitating to help a stranger in need.

Who knows, some day it may be you laying cold and afraid on a sidewalk needing a hand to hold and someone to be calm while help arrives.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.