The Love of a Stranger

This is sort of a weird story, but a good one.

Last year I stayed in the same hostel that I am at currently: Young & Happy. Whereas this year I'm only staying here for 1 day, last year I had about a week, a week which ended on a traumatic note for me. I became violently ill during my very last day in Paris and I found myself with no way to contact my party. I spent aprox. 4 hours by myself, sweating, feverish, vomiting, all alone. By the time I felt strong enough to venture downstairs to the front desk to ask for assistance, I was close to naked, wrapped in a sheet, and white as a ghost. I remember standing in front of the hostel employee, shaking and sweaty. I took a deep breath and tried to say, "Could you call someone in my group for me?" but instead all that came out was tears. I felt terrible crying in front of this stranger, unable to articulate anything, but I was scared and ill, so weeping was the best that I could do.

He was such a sweetheart. His english was not great, but he tried to comfort me. He couldn't reach any of my friends, but he helped me plan out the taxi situation to get me to the airport on time. Without him I would have missed my flight back home completely. I never had the time or the mental clarity to adequately thank him, but as fate would have it...

He was working behind the desk tonight! I immediately recognized him, so I asked him if he remembered helping a sick girl sobbing all over his desk and needing a taxi to the airport. This guy (whose name I still don't know) looked at me for a moment and this his eyes widened. "Yes!" he said, "Your friends weren't there to help you. I remember! You were so sad."

So, in short, my long first day is almost over, I am sitting here at the Young & Happy, tired and sore, aching for some sleep, but I am struck with thankfulness that God gave me the opportunity to reconnect with and finally thank the stranger who helped me when I was at my lowest of lows in a foreign country halfway across the world. The love of a stranger is a pretty powerful thing.