Some evenings ago, I was walking home past a pet rescue centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a bit of a kerfuffle. A van was parked awkwardly, with around nine people shuffling a few distressed dogs between the van and the centre, all with very serious faces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I walked unusually slowly, trying to work out what was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few steps later, I noticed an elderly woman standing in the doorway of a residential building. She was beckoning me over, palms down, curling her fingers towards herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both her hands were covered in clear plastic bags. Beside her was one of those wheelie shopping trolleys elderly people cruise the streets with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She explained that she needed help getting up to her apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[London risk assessment reflex.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I looked back at her. Tiny elderly woman. Plastic bags on her hands. Shopping trolley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to risk it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The front door to the building was heavy. Properly heavy. I pulled it open and held it while she slowly wheeled her trolley through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then we reached the elevators. Another heavy door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I opened it, stepped inside with her, and asked which floor. As we went up, I noticed a large bandage across her chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She asked where I was from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLondon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And whether I liked Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. I really wish I\u2019d come sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told me she didn\u2019t have any family in the country, and also she’s been poorly after a recent operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The elevator stopped. And I held the door open while she made her way out, waiting until she\u2019d made it into her apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wished each other good night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I headed back to the ground floor, stepping outside through the kind of doors I\u2019d opened without much thought thousands of times in other buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wondered what exactly had just happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether this was a normal thing here. Whether elderly Portuguese women regularly select strangers for small acts of manual assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some evenings ago, I was walking home past a pet rescue centre. There was a bit of a kerfuffle. A van was parked awkwardly, with around nine people shuffling a few distressed dogs between the van and the centre, all with very serious faces. I walked unusually slowly, trying to work out what was going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imruls.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}