Anyone who knows me knows that the phrase “right place, right time” is not one that plays a big part in my life. I’m more of an “if it weren’t for bad luck, that girl would have no luck at all.”

I was thinking about that and have developed a theory. I think I am not in the right place in the traditional sense. Like I am not likely to be the one-millionth customer at a restaurant and get a free meal. But yesterday I feel like I was where I needed to be at the time I needed to be there.

My mom was discharged from a rehab facility that she’s been in for several weeks (during which time she tested positive for Covid).

I went to pick her up and had gotten her in the car and was going run back to grab 2 more bags of her clothes. I was walking down the hall and I heard a little voice cry out, “Ma’am? Oh ma’am, can you help me? I need help.”

I looked and saw no one around. I figured I was ma’am for the moment. So I backed up and went into the room.

This tiny woman, who could easily have been my grandmother, or anyone’s really started telling me how she couldn’t connect with anyone and did I know which was the call button because she felt like she had pressed every button.

No problem. I knew the button she needed. I showed her where it was and how to use it and also called her nurse. Then she said that the phone was broken. Turns out, I knew how to fix that too.

Meanwhile, she was talking to me the entire time about how someone cleaned up the room and she can’t find anything. Only then (a little late on the uptake) did I realize that, yes, she needed help but she really just wanted someone to listen to her. I mean both of her requests were for connection with other people.

So I slowed down a bit and listened to her tell me all about how “he” rearranged things and she couldn’t find anything and how she had over 100 messages after her surgery but had zero now and how that couldn’t be right.

Then the nurse came in and I left but not before she began profusely thanking me, how she appreciated that I stopped to help her, and (this is what hit me) how lucky she was that it was me who had walked by her room because most people would pretend not to hear her or say it’s not their problem. How lucky am I, she said, that not only could you help but that you had the heart to.

I was in the right place at the right time. But I don’t think it ends there. I think the other thing to be considered is when you are in the right place at the right time, are you also willing to do the right thing or are you going to pretend you didn’t hear someone asking for help?

I really hope that I will be in the place I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there and that I listen for tiny voices asking for help. I hope I am always the type of person that will respond. I actually can’t imagine not being that person.