I’m going to tell you how a brief – and somewhat awkward – encounter with three women in a ladies room restored my faith in humanity. Hear me out.
On Thursday night I was having dinner at a fairly posh restaurant in Beverly Hills with a friend. Mid conversation, at the end of our meal, I caught a nosebleed. I jumped up and ran for the bathroom and by the time I got there, I was pretty much a waterfall. I was alone at first, which was fine with me because I felt embarrassed and ridiculous, gushing blood over the pristine, white, porcelain sink and shoving paper towels under my nose. (I get nosebleeds fairly often with bad air quality or dry weather but they always stop quickly. This was really bad.)
Suddenly one woman was out of a stall, with her hand on my back, asking if i was okay. And then a second woman, in a very sexy gold dress, was standing next to me, with more paper towels, asking if she could help.
I kept insisting I was fine, but I was actually starting to feel dizzy and nauseous and I think they could tell I was nervous. I have a fuzzy memory of asking if I should go to a hospital. Gold-dress-lady started dabbing at the spots on my arms and hands where I’d stained myself with blood while the other woman, whom I later learned was named Wendy, started rolling up tissue and putting it up my nose, instructing me to tilt my head back and showing me how to hold the bridge of my nose. They were both kind and gentle. It was extraordinarily comforting.
My embarrassment started to fade and I only felt gratitude. Neither would leave me until the bleeding stopped and I appeared to be okay on my feet.
It’s easy to assume anyone would do the same in that situation but I don’t believe that to be true. I saw both women out in the restaurant later. Wendy asked me if I was really okay and I said “yes” and mouthed “thank you.” She said something about how things like that are happening to lots of people because of the air quality from the fires.
I don’t know. Women are often accused of being catty or competitive. Human beings, just by nature, are apprehensive and it’s easy to keep to yourself. You’ll get no judgement from me for that. In a fancy restaurant, in our nice clothes, with good food and great music beckoning from outside the door, it would have been easy to smile, quickly ask if I was okay, and move on. But they stuck with me and I found it incredibly touching.
Faith in humanity restored for the moment. Thanks, ladies.
Sweet story