I was out for a walk and a lady who was driving by stopped in the middle of the street, rolled down her window, and cheered for me.

The truck was behind me when I heard the yelling. At first, I completely diverted all my attention to walking faster forward down the sidewalk. My neighborhood is in a bit of a “transformation” period you might say, and we definitely have a few sketchy things happen from time to time. I actually live on a strip people like to lovingly call, “The Green Mile,” because it has so many weed shops😂

Anyway, this lady continued to try to get my attention so I finally turned around. She had stopped right in the middle of the road in her big black truck and rolled down the window to yell at me.

She was clapping and hollering to celebrate! “You’re a cancer warrior right?! I’m a survivor too, so I just wanted to say hi!”

I guess my bald head with random patches of hair gave it away. “I am!” I yelled as I smiled back.

“How are you doing?! You look great!” she yelled, still a third of a block away or so.

“Good!”

That word “good” is usually a space filler. But I really was… good. Life wasn’t necessarily ideal but I was really happy in that moment, chatting (yelling) with another person who had been through the same thing. She made my experience and my neighborhood feel less big, less scary, more intimate, and more fun. So “good” carried so much weight that day.

Our talk was brief and then she rolled away as I continued on my walk around the neighborhood. I laughed at the spectacle we just made, but that stranger made my day.

I want to be more like her.
Someone who stops everything they’re doing to celebrate a stranger. What a sweet gift we can all give more of.