Humanity

We're nothing without each other. And it's only by extending a hand to help someone else that we truly feel a sense of worth. Despite all the pitiful goings on in this world we should never fail to give support to someone who needs us.

I was reminded of this last night. There I was enjoying the most relaxing night I've had in a long time. Celebrating nine years of marriage at a hotel with my husband whilst the children were being looked after by their grandparents.

In the early hours of the morning my sleep was disturbed by a man shouting for help. 'Another drunk' I thought as I snuggled deeper into the bed. But I couldn't close my eyes and I couldn't switch off. His cries continued and he began to sound desperate. 'Help, I'm falling.' 'Somebody help me please'.

I heard banging on the window. 'Oh my God,' I said jumping out of the bed. He really is in the trouble. At the window I saw nothing. My husband, who would ordinarily be able to sleep through an avalanche (he certainly never heard the babies crying) realised the severity of the situation and jumped up, opening the window whilst I made a call to reception.

Outside, was a man covered in blood, which appeared to be coming from a head wound. I saw hotel staff take him away. Getting back into bed I still thought that perhaps he was yet another reveller, fuelled by alcohol, who had gone and done something stupid.

At breakfast I enquired about the man only to discover that he'd been the victim of a serious car crash. No one had stopped to help him on the motorway although he'd tried to flag people down. He had made his way from the motorway, down an embankment, across a major roundabout and stumbled to the hotel. He was suffering from head and spinal injuries.

Thank God for the hotel staff. Had I been one of the hotel guests whose window he had banged on I too may have been too afraid to go outside. But now it chills me when I think 'what if that was my son?' That poor man was strong enough to drag himself several yards to get help even though he sustained severe injuries. And we were all too afraid to help (or perhaps would have been given the opportunity).

Recently, a woman in India was savagely raped and beaten then left for dead by the side of the road. Her bloodied friend, who also sustained a beating when trying to defend her, tried to get help from passers by. They were ignored. Perhaps those passers by now feel remorseful for their actions (or lack of them).

I'm not saying I want to be blinded from the atrocities of this world or how calculating, brutal and cruel some people can be but I am saying that I don't want the devilish ways of another to stop me from being a samaritan.

Let's help each other.

p.s. Thank you to the wonderful staff at Cedar Court Hotel, Wakefield for whom nothing was too much trouble. You were kind, genuinely friendly and deserve more than your four out of five star award from Trip Advisor.