“Mmmankuuu”

Just rescued this from my deactivated account so I have some personal record of it

Today, as I was walking east on Sheppard to go to the Bayview subway station, I saw a man in a motorized wheelchair continuously going and stopping. It was raining, so I decided to walk beside him and share my umbrella with him. We both went inside the station and there I asked him if he needed help, and he, being unable to talk properly took out a notebook which had various instructions on different pages (e.g. “Hi, my name is ___ ____, and I need to go to *location*”, “TTC: I need to buy 20 tokens for this month”). He ended up on a page that said the latter, so I decided to make sure he got the 20 tokens.

Aside from not being able to talk properly, he had a physical disability. So I went down the elevator to the fare station with him and told the attendant that I’d need 20 tokens for the man. I asked the man where his money was, and he mumbled and pointed to a bag that was slung over the armrest of the motorized wheelchair. I got $45 out of the wallet that was in the bag and got the 20 tokens for him and put his wallet and the 20 tokens back in the bag. The attendant then was like, “I’ve never seen anything like this. You’re number one; I should get your name down so I can tell my family.” (I ended up not giving the attendant my name )

I told the impaired man that I had to go now since I was already late to meet a friend, and he managed to smile and mumble: “Mmmankuuu” (“Thank You”).

The point of this note is not to boast “Oh, I’m so nice and generous”; it’s just one of the few moments in my life where my scope on the world is widened. If I wasn’t already thinking of my future enough, this made me see the difficulties that come with old age and/or disabilities, and just imagining it was me in that motorized wheelchair instead of that man raises some questions for me. Would there be kind strangers who would help me? Or would there be mean people who point and laugh at me, or run away with my money/possessions? The level of dependency on others scares me.

This made me realize how I take my mobility and speech for granted. An important thing to take into account is that regardless of physical appearance and behavior, people are still human beings, with the same desire to love and be loved (excluding the psychopathic ones of course). It’s inevitable that my parents will age and that I’ll have to take care of them. Looking further into the future (I always seem to be thinking about the future), my future wife’s parents will also age and require care. I would also see them as being my parents, and so I’d provide them the same love and care I’d show my parents.

After all, it’s only fair because parents dedicate almost their whole lives toward our well-being. It’s an act of reciprocity.