The Kindness of Strangers

As with a lot of good stories, they can either begin with or end with heart break, this one begins with it. I had thought I found the love of my life, we met online on an app through mutual friends off a broadcasting app. When ever we get tired of entertaining or need to get back to life but want to have company to do whatever life chore we are going to accomplish we switch to a group app so we can come and go as we need to and can speak freely without worry of offending our audience. The guy was from Portland, Oregon, even though it is only 16 hours away from where I live in Canada I had never been down there, and it was somewhere I had wanted to visit for numerous reasons. I had been planning a trip to Texas, but it had fallen through so I was looking for somewhere to go. I have friends from the app who were wanting to meet me for quite some time so I planned a route that would see me through Idaho, Washington state and Oregon before coming home the long way through British Columbia. We had been friends for 6 months leading up to me planning this trip and there was not really any flirting or talk about relationships other than the odd discussion about what we looked for in them but being from different countries it did not cross our minds that we would find ourselves drawn to each other aside from the friendship we had developed. When I told him about my plan and route, I wanted to take he told me he would love to show me around the Portland area and that he had no problems with me staying at his place while I was down there so away, I went. From that first visit he had my heart in a way I never thought possible and we came up with every way to spend time together as much as possible with the border in our way. For the better part of year, I spent my time down there with him, went back and forth every month for a week or two at a time until September when I started school and was going to spend six months with him to help him stay motivated to get his bills caught up and get his passport so he could come to Canada with me and make it easier to be together without being able to move to either country for the time being. It was three months in that everything changed and where I truly learned about the kindness of strangers. Being from another Country I was not aloud to work without permission and a visa, and with Trump being in office most places had stopped trying to hire out of country because it was nearly impossible to get approval plus it is an expensive process that is the responsibility of the company to pay if they are hiring immigrants. I was doing my best to do chores and house keeping to make a few dollars to help how ever I could, make sure I had gas in my car and food to eat while we were trying to get his life in order with his money. My car was not running properly so I was trying to save to get it fixed for when I had to head home, and I was doing some cash night work putting inserts into newspapers. It was doing this that I met the first person that went out of their way to help me. One week after I met this lady, we will call her Dina, is when my world came crashing down and I was left with no where to go, no money and my car not running well enough to get me home. It was the middle of the night and he thought I was sleeping, I was laying quietly watching him play a game on his phone and when I seen what he said to a girl he was talking to my heart broke and I walked out the door, never to look back.

This back story is important for many reasons, to know that I was in another country, no friends other than him and his family and no way to make any real money with a broken-down vehicle left me to sleep in my car, in winter, to try and figure out a way to get home. Dina who had just started inserting at the paper with me had given me her number and said to call if I needed a night out. I had been feeling like things were off and we had talked a little about it the week before when she thought I was not my normal chipper self at work on only her third shift. Since it was the middle of the night when I left on our days off, I did not want to text her until it was a reasonable hour, so I went to one of the spots I used to park when we stayed in my van I used to have and tried to get some sleep. When I woke up a few hours later I called her number but did not get an answer, so I sent a text with a little bit of a run down of what had happened. She unfortunately was away for a couple days so I spent the next 48 hours spending time talking to friends and trying to get what ever sleep I could in my car. I was cold, heart broken and at some points scared because I really thought at the most, she would let me stay a night and from there I was not sure what I was going to do. I was doing an online college course and using the computer where I was staying with him, so I did not have any way to do my course work aside from going to a library and as I had not slept or eaten, I was not in any shape to go sit and work in a library, so I messaged my teachers and asked for a grace period for my schoolwork. Thankfully, they were able to do this for me and that was at least one thing I did not have to stress about for the moment. When I finally heard from Dina, I was so relieved she said I could come use her shower and her computer to get caught up on some of the work I was now behind on. I tried to be a good guest when I got there, she had some company, and I did not want to make anyone feel like I was avoiding them or that I was ungrateful by just hiding in the room she let me put my stuff in, so I showered and went to spend time with her and her guests. After a little while I politely excused myself and went to the room to work on my homework and try and find some answers about how I had ended up in this mess. We had to work that night, so after a nap and homework we hopped in her vehicle and away we went. Since we were finally alone, and I had gotten a decent nap in I told her what had happened and what I was up against in trying to get myself home. She told me she would do what she could to help me out, but she had reservations about me being at her house alone since she really did not know me at all. I of course understood this and told her that as long as I had somewhere to at least get some school work done, and sleep that I would find places to go when she needed me to, that I was more than grateful for everything she had already done and since with how things were looking I was going to need at least two weeks to get enough money together to be able to fix my car and get home, that I would take what ever help she could give me and I would do my best to not cause any hardships for her or be in her way at all. After two days at her house, one of her neighbors had not seen me cry, was concerned because I had not left my room other than to say hi and use the washroom when we were not at work so she had started to believe that I was not being honest about why I was there and thought she should get me to find a different place to stay. Dina has a friend that runs a B&B for a very cheap nightly rate and asked if I would mind staying there instead as the concerns that were raised were reasonable and of course caused her to second guess my motives as well. I told her that I would gladly do that for her peace of mind and stay there instead, that if she did not mind that I sleep when we were done work since we got done at 3am and once we were up, I would get her to help me get set up with her other friend. When I got up that day, I was given information from some mutual friends with my ex about things he was doing behind my back and I finally broke. I could not stop sobbing. I ugly cried when she came in the room and asked what I had found out and from there she told me she was sorry for asking if I would leave and told me she would not let me be alone and to stay with her, I could not of been more thankful. It was over thanksgiving that I was with her, and her parents insisted I did not spend it alone, so I got to enjoy a wonderful meal with Dina and her family. As it got closer to the day I planned to leave and my car not running well she drove us to work in her vehicle, and one day when going to see one of her good friends they had let me know they had a code reader and told me to bring my car over so I would be able to give the mechanics I was taking it to know what was wrong, so I had an idea of what it was going to cost to fix it. Her friend not only did that for me but after asking me about my story while we checked on my car, gave me $40 as well to help me get home. I gave half to Dina to help with the gas she had used and even though it did not come close to paying her back for everything she had done for me I felt better for giving her something. Our last shifts at work together seen us put in over 24 hours in a 36-hour time span for the Thanksgiving rush, the result was a major bursal impairment in my right shoulder causing pain so bad I passed out trying to work it out and she caught the flu. She rubbed my shoulder with pain cream and helped me get it worked out and in turn I cleaned her house and cooked for her so she could relax and try to get better. One of her friends came over as I was getting ready to leave and just happened to be a trained massage therapist and did some work on my shoulder to help since I drive a stick and I was not sure how the trip was going to go with all the pain I was in. It was one more kindness I could not have imagined and did not expect. In my two weeks with her I made a lifelong friend and hope one day to be able to fully repay the kindness she showed me. She took a stranger into her home, kept me safe, fed and loved all I could do to repay her was help with housework and cook and I gladly did both.

Being I had a friend in Washington my tale of good faith and kindness does not end with what she did for me, when I finally had enough to get my car fixed and gas to get home my close friend whom I also met online, and had only met once before on my first trip to the area, Ian worked at a dealership and made a deal with his boss to fix my car and allow me to detail cars to not only cover the work but allow me to have some extra money in case I needed to eat or something happened along my way home. I made my way to him and he fixed me up in a hotel room and took me to work with him for two days to make sure my car would make it back to Canada safely. He gave me a computer to do my school work on the rest of my trip home and let me use his good computer at the hotel so I had a bigger screen to work with. If it was not for these people it is hard to say what may have transpired with my tale of heart break, but I can honestly tell you they restored my faith in humanity and I am working every day towards being able to repay them for their generosity and kindness, as well as paying it forward to others while I wait for the opportunity to do so for them. Because of the pandemic I have had to hold off on anything I have wanted to do for both of them but as soon as I am able, I will show them how much the things they did meant to me, I could of never asked or expected such kindness from a stranger nor from an online friend.