A kind word

Getting on the tube, somewhat zombie-fied after only four hours sleep, to visit an osteopath to see if he had any words of wisdom on the appalling new sleep patterns of my baby (see previous post), I found myself opposite an older woman, perhaps fifty, with a wheelie trolley. She smiled in acknowledgement when I excused the baby being scared and crying at the loud station announcements (meanwhile someone else changed carriages to avoid us). As the train started I managed to soothe him and he became calm as we journeyed onwards.

The woman and I got off at the same stop and she strode off ahead of me towards the escalator, but just before reaching it she did a u-turn and came back to me as I prepared to get on the escalator (always tricky). "You're very good with him," she said. "You look like a lovely mother." I just managed to say thank you and smile before she made her way onto the escalator and disappeared up ahead of me.

Standing on the escalator, balancing the pram, I very nearly cried. On a bad day when you can barely string thoughts together through lack of sleep and you've run out of ideas on how to make things better, to have someone stop their own life for a brief moment and offer some kind words makes a huge difference to how you feel.

So to the lady on the tube who turned back to say a kind word, whoever you were, thank you. It meant a lot.