9th February 2012
Dear Cassi,
One of those things about calling for help is that folks need to understand you. You and I know better than most how those calls can fall on deaf ears. So here is a story about that happening shortly after my mother’s death.
I was coming down Rio Hondo hill with Alan and Paul and we had made it almost all the way home when we passed the bridge for the San Jose Creek. A woman’s voice called out ‘help, help!’ and we looked down to see a middle aged dark skinned woman on the river bank.
She looked fine with no clear sign of distress as she stood there in the dust but I noted that she picked up some long bit of discarded rubbish and tried to use it as a cane.
To my surprise Alan called back “Hello” and waved. As I was ten or eleven I couldn’t understand why he would do a thing like that given the situation.
“Help, help!” she called again and the old man stood there as if he didn’t understand.
“I think she’s said help,” I commented still confused by the situation. I had little understanding of hearing at the time and I couldn’t get it into my head that what I heard and what Alan had heard was so different.
With that we went down into the creek bed to find out what was wrong and the woman said that she had fallen down the slope and twisted her ankle. She lived close to the river and we quickly found her husband and helped her back up to her home.
As we walked away Alan commented that this had been an adventure. I was unimpressed but when I asked him why he couldn’t understand the woman he said “If it hadn’t been for you we would have just walked by,” and cries for help would have fallen on deaf ears.
Stay safe, little sister
Richard Leland Neal
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