What a Stranger on the Train Taught Me About Life

On the train I sit next to an elderly woman. She jokes that I probably wished I had the seats to myself, I laugh and tell her “Company is always nice.” I learn that her name is Janice and the conversation naturally ebbs and flows as we look out the window and read our books. 

Janice shares with me that her son died this year and shows me the picture they used at his service. Wistfully she tells me it is framed in her bedroom. It’s a photo of him in the woods at his cottage, broad form back lit by the rising sun. He looks angelic, as though the photo was foreshadowing.

She tells me God has brought a lot of beautiful people into her life to help her move through her grief. I ask her how long she’s known God and she tells me about how she found him at 38 when she was a nurse treating a patient in the hospital. The patient gave her a bible, told her to read it and it changed her life. She tells me that God loves her so much and says “You know, he loves you so much too. God puts dreams in our hearts and he helps us chase them until they come true. It’s like your story, you wanted to be a doctor until that day you changed your mind and wanted to be a scientist. That’s a great story.” Her eyes sparkle with such conviction, even an atheist would be hard pressed to question her words. She asks me if I am spiritual and I tell her yes but in a different way, sharing that I was raised Catholic but not practicing. Janice smiles and tells me that when I’m ready, the book of John is a good place to start. 

Janice reflects on how she regrets all the time she spent away from her family after leaving her hometown for a nursing job. It wasn’t until her mother was old and she moved closer to care for her that she realized she missed out on all the little things. Grocery shopping together, family meals, the little things that you don’t think about when you’re younger. With this confession she looks longingly out the window and I imagine all her memories are whirring by like the landscape. 

* * *

I disembarked that train lighter despite the weight of the new lessons I carried in my backpack. 

There is a collective ache for someone to hold our stories lovingly in their arms, even if only for minutes or hours. For someone’s presence to lighten the burden of what we have carried in silence. A listening ear, a smile, a nod, go so far.  We all yearn for that powerful and divine moment that is hearing  “God loves you” from a stranger's lips. We need to be told that a power higher than us is conspiring to help all our dreams come true. This is our shared humanity.

To the stranger on the train, Janice, thank you for teaching me.

To those of you reading this, thank you for holding my stories lovingly in your arms.

Big Hugs,

Syd