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A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

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Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#91

Post by thegrimmest »

danso wrote: post #89
thegrimmest wrote: post #77

[flagged]

> “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.” > I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I should go there. He says I don’t have very long.” > I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to go?” I asked. How is the elderly woman in this story imposing on the narrator? He…

> For every sympathetic cab driver there are 100 people who are not interested in the life stories of lonely elderly people

> "I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I should go there. He says I don’t have very long."

This is the imposition. From that point forward it's impolite to tell her you don't care, even if it's honest. Keep your personal life to yourself.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#92

Post by dang »

colineartheta wrote: post #83
thegrimmest wrote: post #77

[flagged]

This is…a deeply disturbing take and outlook on life, and all I can hope for is that it was meant in some dark irony that is beyond me. The sheer arrogance of it has me floored. We are all human, and our lives are worth living and sharing. But yours? I can only imagine your existence is as lonely and angry as you wish upon others. Be well, friend, and may the sun shine on you, one day.

Please don't cross into personal attack, no matter how wrong another comment is or you feel it is.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#95

Post by thegrimmest »

dang wrote: post #93
thegrimmest wrote: post #77

[flagged]

Please don't post flamewar provocations to HN and please avoid generational flamewar here in particular. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Hi dang, sorry I'm not trying to flame anyone. I'm just questioning a cultural norm that is far from universal in a story that is highly relevant.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#96

Post by PUSH_AX »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #24
Murfalo wrote: post #18

End of life is terrifying... Especially the idea of facing it alone, with all your friends and family long gone (or, worse yet, having been abandoned), is heartbreaking.

Prepare for it now and everyday. Maybe it won’t be as terrifying when it comes.

Momento Mori

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#97

Post by don-code »

gk1 wrote: post #39

Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…

Back in high school, I fulfilled my community service requirement at a local nursing home. Several of the residents there had no local friends or family, and as a result, no visitors. I was tasked just with giving them someone to talk to.

What surprised me is that most of the residents did not want to talk to someone - they wanted to be left alone. Many assumed they'd be going home, and didn't want to build any friendships. The one exception who stood out was a man in what I believe was his late 70s, functionally deaf but still able to speak. I'd communicate with him by writing on a whiteboard, and letting him speak in response.

This man over the course of several weeks gave me his life's story - if I recall, he'd worked most of his life as a Boston firefighter. He had quite a bit to say, and I could tell that given the nature of interacting with him, no one else had really spent time talking with him since he'd become deaf. I don't know how long he had been deaf for, but I imagine this wasn't terribly different from being "locked in".

My second to last week at the nursing home, he told me that he'd said everything there was to say - he didn't have any more stories, but was happy to have seen me come back.

My last week there, I went to go see him anyway, only to find the bed clean and his things moved out. It turned out that he had passed away earlier in the week.

I'm happy that I was able to give him those few hours.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#98

Post by sparks1970 »

DonHopkins wrote: post #90
agentwiggles wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had two fairly magical musical experiences with old guys during my college days. One happened during my junior year. I lived in a house with two other guys, who were out of town for the night, so I was home alone. I was short on cash so decided to just stay home, and I was playing guitar out on the stoop of my house drinking from a bottle of cheap wine that was left over in the fridge. I was pretty delighted when t…

I had some miraculous wizard encounters too, with Jesus Mouse! There was a nice bohemian coffee shop on Haight Street in San Francisco that I used to hang out at in the early 90's, and one of the regulars who called himself "Jesus Mouse" was an old freaky looking hippie dude in a costume of a Mickey Mouse hat, and long tail, and Jesus-like long beard and hair. He also carried a wizardly walking stick topped with an o…

I think Jesus Mouse was onto something. I've been to the Vatican. I don't think Jesus would have been impressed.

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#99

Post by mynameishere »

linuxftw wrote: post #38

Reading this I got the impression that the person is a professional writer and fictionalized for emotional effect. Indeed, this is from an author. I'm all but immune to sentimentalism on the internet, and this story came across like a facebook chain letter.

Yeah, something about a person who can still haul around luggage going to a hospice doesn't work for me. Hospices are usually the last stop for the bedridden, not the doomed-but-ambulatory. I'm no expert, of course...

Also, the "not taking a fare" aspect is just, eh. You're okay explaining the hours of mileage to your company? "She was a nice old lady... And she needs some spending money in the afterlife."

Re: A cab ride I'll never forget (1999)

#100

Post by jll29 »

nus07 wrote: post #60
gk1 wrote: post #39

Nearly 20 years ago my friend and I returned to his dorm building after a long long night out, only to discover we were locked out. With nothing better to do, we sat outside on the stoop and planned to chat the hours away until 6am when the doors would reopen. Before the dawn came, a man in his 80s almost walked past us. He stopped to ask for directions somewhere, maybe to a church. After our half-hearted attempt at…

This is another thing which cell phones have killed. Today odds are you would be trying to call or text to get in or just browsing on your phone with no time to listen to some old man’s stories .

Perhaps, once a year, there ought to be an "Official offline day", where all cellular networks are down, so humans can have such moments of serendipity again.
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