The Old Man on the Bus.
- Stephanie
- Mar 14, 2016
- 2 min read
After an Amazing weekend visiting three of my friends in Lincoln, I decided to stop off at home to visit my family before heading back to Hull until the holidays. This spontaneous decision meant that at the time my dad was unable to pick me up at the station as he was fixing my uncles electrics as he accidentally cut a branch down, wrapping out the wires. I really did not fancy the half an hour bus ride home with a huge suitcase, so instead I went for the fifteen minute bus ride to my aunties, knowing that when I arrive I get a hot tea and usually some homemade cake or cookies and I was not wrong there!
The journey was some what scary, in the sense that I was not too sure if I was on the right bus or where to get off and the fact that it was pitch black and an unknown area did not help at all. However, the Journey was not all bad, for across me sat an old man who had the biggest and kindest smile i had seen in a long time. I casually smiled back, after a few minutes the man who must have been older than 80 began to mouth something whilst smiling and was using sign language to try and communicate with me. Thankfully I knew a little sign as I enrolled on a sign language course during my first year at Sixth-form and found the course very interesting, however, I could only remember little bits like `my name is` and `how are you?`.
The gentleman was extremely patient with me and could see I was struggling, I felt like I was making a fool of myself but the man just kept smiling and putting his thumb up in support and encouragement and even when i struggled to understand he did not give up and did not stop smiling.
Ten minutes in on the journey, the gentlemen rang the bell and got up ready to leave the bus. just before he got of, he stop and looked at me. He gave me the biggest smile and then shook my hand before getting off the bus and waving goodbye as the bus left.
my encounter with the Old Man on the bus made me smile the rest of the journey though I wish I could remember more of my Sign language course and after my meeting with him think that Sign language should be taught in schools because it is a language and one that is rarely understood but used often.
The mans kindness, patience and beautiful smile has stuck with me and will remain a beautiful moment in my memory.
Stephanie xoxo
Comments