fallin'

I keep finding myself around people that have fallen down lately. I don't like this.

The first incident happened the day before Thanksgiving. I was waiting to board the elevator at the subway station (didn't want to haul my luggage up another flight of stairs) and I paused to let the elderly woman on my left enter ahead of me. She was pulling one of those grocery carts behind her. When she entered the elevator, the wheels of the cart got stuck in that little gap between the station and elevator floors, and she went flying - struck the side of the elevator face first, and slid down to the floor awkwardly. It was a miracle that she didn't bust open her face.

There was another woman there as well. She told the old woman to stay down, and we pressed the button in the elevator and called for help. I got stuck holding the elevator door open, which kept slamming against my arm every 30 seconds. Eventually the paramedics and police came, and told me I could go.

Episode 2 happened on Sunday. I was walking to my brother's house through the slush and snow, and I passed a woman with a small child. I got maybe fifty feet past them when I heard the child wail - not a normal cry, it sounded like he was hurt. I turned around and both the woman and boy were on the ground - she was bent awkwardly. I ran up to her and was trying to ask her if she was ok, but her English wasn't all that great. A man with a familiar voice rolled up out of the car and asked if he should call 911. I said yes. When I turned and looked at him I realized that it was my brother.

I gave my umbrella to the boy to keep the rain off the woman's face - I think the kid may have been in shock. The woman managed to pull out her cell phone and call her husband, who came sprinting up the sidewalk a minute later. He pulled her up (which I didn't think was so good of an idea) and said that they didn't need the ambulance. So I then had to call 911 and tell them NOT to send it - which requires a lot of patience, let me tell you.

Moral of the story? Be careful walking in my general vicinity.