Summer vacations are those days for children that they wait for all year round, and for me, summer vacations were even more special because they gave me the opportunity to visit my grandmother's house. This is a story from my childhood when I was fourteen years old. Just like every year, I went to my grandmother's house to spend my vacations, spent two months in absolute comfort and ease, and soon the time arrived when I had to bid farewell to those wonderful days and head back home, because the gates of my school were waiting for me anxiously. We packed our belongings and set off for home. The journey from my grandmother's house to my own took an hour and a half. If one traveled by local transport, it required changing two vehicles, but I was supposed to ride on a motorbike with my brother. However, as destiny would have it, no sooner had we left home than a light drizzle began. We stopped for a short while. Since the weather was bad, my brother made me board a local vehicle, saying that he would follow right behind the vehicle and pick me up at the next stop. But we had barely covered half the journey when rain poured down heavily, forcing my brother to stop on the way. I had never traveled alone before and was completely unfamiliar with the routes. The vehicle dropped off various passengers along the way. I was supposed to get off at the last stop of the vehicle and board another local transport that would drop me near my home. But as another stroke of misfortune, the vehicle dropped me somewhat ahead of the station. Five or six passengers got down with me here, and the vehicle emptied out. The moment I stepped down, my mind went blank; there was neither any station around nor any sign of my brother. My knees were trembling with fear. Amidst so many unfamiliar faces, where the majority consisted of men, my heart wished I could just close my eyes and vanish from that place. After waiting for a long time without catching even a glimpse of my brother, I gathered the courage to ask a middle-aged vegetable vendor nearby about the bus stop. Engaged in his work, he hastily replied that the bus stop was left behind. Dejected, I walked back to my spot and stood there again. A little more time passed. Shortly after, a middle-aged woman walked past me. She was perhaps a local resident who had come to buy vegetables. She walked past me, bought her vegetables, and as she headed back, she glanced in my direction. Perhaps she had sensed my distressed condition.
She came up to me and asked, "My daughter, are you waiting for someone?" I briefly narrated my ordeal to her. "I am also a mother of daughters, may Allah keep all sons in His protection," she said, and took me along toward the bus stop. After walking for a short while, we reached the bus stop. She seated me in a wagon heading toward my town, and as good luck would have it, I found another woman from my town inside the vehicle. She dropped me right at my doorstep. That benefactress is still safely preserved in my memory. Her small act of kindness has immortalized her in my heart. May Allah bless her with good health and keep her in His divine protection.
