The Stranger Lady

Every year I look forward to Chinese New Year because not only I get days off from it, but I also get affected by the contagious festive mood all around me. The red color, the very hype Chinese New Year songs and the rush of people spending their money in the malls.

Stranger Lady left the building yesterday, but I didn't get to say goodbye to her because I was away to town. I didn't really tell my mom about my roommate and I letting a complete stranger living in our quarters until last night. Of course, when I told mom she started to pep talk me about the dangers of exposing yourself to strangers -- just like when I was 5 years old.

Stranger Lady lost connection to her family and home, is carrying a foetus of three months, been hit (abused) by her boyfriend and has generally messed her life up. The sad thing about is, we (as in my roommie and I) didn't do anything about what we know, except to give her shelter for a few days. It makes me wonder what kind of woman am I if I'm going to let a sister live a terrible life when I know I can change it. If anything bad happens to her after this, I know I'm going to regret it a little because I'm already a small part of her story.

All I can do is pray for her safety and hope that she lives a better life. I believe prayer is the mightiest help we can give to anyone. It's not that I don't care, I don't know her enough to help her throughout. She didn't really tell me about herself, her problems or anything else; partly because I think it's too complicated for her, let alone for me to know.

So if you know any friends (or strangers even) who is in a wreck like Stranger Lady, don't hesitate to give a helping hand, even though what you do will not improve much. If you're brave enough to do a more drastic step, maybe that's better. But of course you'd have to observe some cautions when dealing with strangers. My mom told me to forget Stranger Lady and not have anything to do with her again, but I hope I won't need to do that.

Stranger Lady may just be a passing, random person; but she made me see some little things in life that never came to my senses.