Kindness: A Blind Man

There's a homeless man that hangs out near the subway stop near my office. He sits inside, by the window with his cart of who-knows-what. Sometimes he eats Little Debbie honey buns. Sometimes he has a cellphone plugged in, recharging. Sometimes he's asleep. He's often asleep. He doesn't really talk to anyone.

He seems to be losing his sight. He has a cane - like a old man cane with the curved top. But it's also white and red - like a blind man's cane.

One day last week I noticed he was missing. His cart was there, but he wasn't. Strange. So I continued on my way to the train - down the escalators, down the steps. I was reading my book, waiting on the outbound platform as the inbound train pulled into the station. After it pulled away, I heard tapping. I looked up and there he was. Scanning his way down the platform.

Maybe he'd ridden the train somewhere. Or maybe he'd just been sitting on a bench and decided to get up as the train left. Either way, he was on the move now. Slowly making his way toward the middle of the platform. He kept banging his cane against the tiled wall of the station, feeling his way along.

One of the (scarce) subway station workers walked up to him. Talked to him. Presumably asked him where he was trying to go. He said the elevator. So she took his arm, lead him up the handicapped ramp and pushed the up button on the elevator. She left him there as the doors opened. He made his way cautiously in after the ping of the elevator's arrival. As the doors slowly closed, I wondered how he'd figure out what buttons to push once inside. Since the blindness seemed to be more recent than not, I was pretty sure he didn't know braille. But I guess he figured it out and made it upstairs to be reunited with his cart.

Now, maybe subway workers are required to help handicapped people, whether they ask for aid or not. But, in my experience, they don't, or I don't see it. Unless it's grudgingly, and I mean sighing and muttering, helping a wheelchair onto the bus/train.
So, I'm calling this one an act of kindness. Even is it's expected.