Did You Know…? / Thu 08 Jul 04: Love in an elevator
Love in an elevator
I got into an elevator yesterday with a woman (about 40 years old) and a little girl (about 3 years old). The girl had been asking the mother question after question and the mother answering them all without losing patience. Then the little girl pointed to my messenger bag and asked “What does that hanger thingy mean?”
I expected her mother to look exasperated, but instead, she just replied “A long time before you were born there were women who would get something inside them that made them feel ill and they would use a coathanger to get rid of it.”
“Why didn’t they go to the doctor?”
“Most doctor’s didn’t think that these women felt ill, so they refused to help them. Then a bunch of women got together and helped each other get a law passed that would make it possible for these women to get help from a doctor.”
“Will I ever have to use a coathanger to make myself get well?”
There was a pause, and this woman looked me in the eye with such intense focus that everything except her face fuzzed out and became dark. “Not if there are enough women like her in the world.” She nodded toward me.
Her daughter looked at me, I looked at her, unsure if I was going to cry or smile, and the little girl said, “Thanks, ma’am!”
Before I could think of something to say, to either one of them. Her mother said “At the age of three they’re full of questions.”
I smiled at them both and said “I’d rather talk to a three-year-old with questions than an adult who knows everything any day.” The elevator doors opened and the two walked in front of me talking about why it was too close to dinner to get ice cream.
As I got on the train to go home, I realized that this was the first time that someone had called me ma’am and I hadn’t been offended.