Patienceනියැදිය

Take the long way please

It was the last fare for the day. The cabbie punched the horn a couple of times outside the unkempt house with the dying lawn. Nothing. He considered driving off, but instead knocked on the front door. ‘Coming!’ said a soft voice from inside. The door opened to a frail woman in her nineties wearing her Sunday best. Helping her down the front stairs, he tossed the suitcase into the boot. She gave her destination and asked to drive through the city centre. ‘That’s the long way,’ the driver muttered. ‘Oh, I don’t mind, I’m in no hurry.’ He saw her eyes cloud with tears in the rear-view mirror. ‘I don’t have any family left,’ she said, ‘and my doctor says not much time either.’

The cabbie quietly shut off the meter as she pointed out the old ballroom she danced at as a young woman, the first home she shared with her late husband, and then the derelict building she was once the elevator attendant for. Kilometres and memories passed by the cab window.

‘It’s here,’ she whispered indicating a low-set brown building. Pulling into a long sweeping driveway, two orderlies emerged from the home with a chair and retrieved her small suitcase.

‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Nothing, there will be other passengers.’

She squeezes his hand and smiles. ‘You have been very patient with an old lady.’ He does not take another fare that night.

Ephesians 4:2 reminds us that patience is not merely waiting, but the attitude with which we wait. What greater blessings could come today in taking the ‘long way through the city’?

Written by Dwayne Jeffries