Schlepping a suitcase, even if it's only half-full can be a challenge. Schlepping the suitcase, plus a full backpack after a very long flight (from Israel to Newark Airport) and a full day of touring in Philadelphia and the trip to there and then to New York City by train and then taking the subway from Penn Station to the Upper East Side... Well, the last leg of the trip almost did me in. That's when I...
There was no way I could get up those stairs and I didn't see an elevator. I had already walked further trying to find the shuttle than I would have walked on the street from the West Side to the East, or so it seemed.
Well, I just stood there staring, feeling smaller and older and weaker by the second. When some total strangers offered to help, I did the Israeli thing and said thank you. I could barely keep up. There were a lot of stairs! My "New York head" wondered if I'd ever get my suitcase back. Can people be trusted? This was New York, not Shiloh nor even Jerusalem! I thanked him again when he handed me the suitcase. And I did the same at a later point in the trek when others assisted me schlepping the bag up stairs.
When I finally made it to my New York daughter's place she chastised me for not taking a cab:
"It would only have cost you $15!"
OK, I'm not that dumb. I took a cab from her place back to Penn Station at the end of my trip.
2 comments:
Haha. I would have been reluctant to hand my suitcase over to a stranger. Those stairs do look daunting, though. I probably would have attempted it one step at a time (both feet on one step!). And then bailed out halfway up...;-)
I felt it pikuach nefesh. When I was a young mother of three, an older woman I met taught me the importance of asking for help. It was one of the best things I ever could have learned.
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