3 hours ago
1
I grew up in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales and went to university in Bathurst.
I was 19 and heading back to uni at the end of the midyear break when I fell asleep on the Sydney-bound train, waking up just after the station where I was supposed to switch to a bus. I was an inexperienced traveller, so I asked the on-board staff what to do. “Stay on until Central and we’ll sort out your train to Bathurst from there,” I was told. I resisted the temptation to get off at the next station and call my family for a pickup. I told myself it was my mistake and I needed to figure it out.
I’d never been to Central station in Sydney and was very nervous, so I appreciated how helpful the staff seemed. As we pulled in, five hours later, I approached the staff again to ask how the transfer would work. “Actually, it’s your responsibility to get off at the right station,” I was told. “You need to make your own arrangements now.”
Stunned, I stood on the platform with no idea what to do next. It was now dark, my family was more than five hours’ away by road, I knew no one in Sydney, and all I had was $20 in my pocket and the few items I’d carried on to the train, since my luggage had gone on to Bathurst without me. I didn’t know where to start trying to unpick the mess and I was terrified of being stranded in the city. I was sobbing by the time a Sydney Trains employee came over. “Are you OK?” she asked, adding: “Can I help you?”
I explained about the missed connection, having no money and, essentially, no idea how to survive the night. I’m not sure how coherent I was, but she took me to the now long-gone ticket counters and found out the next train to Bathurst wouldn’t be leaving until morning. This was a terrible blow to me, but the woman told me she would take me home to her place and bring me back in the morning. She called my dad to let him know where I was and where I would be staying. (I can only imagine his horrified reaction at the thought of his country kid loose in the big city.) He immediately offered to drive to Sydney to collect me, but my guardian angel reassured him I’d be safe and on the next train to Bathurst in the morning.
She booked me on the right train without charge and took me home with her. She offered me food, lent me clothing to sleep in, woke me in the morning and escorted me back to Central, to the platform where my train waited. She gave me detailed instructions about collecting my “held” luggage at Bathurst station and said farewell.
More than two decades later, I still cannot believe anyone, especially a woman who lived alone, would be that trusting of a stranger. As a society, we’re so primed to think people are trying to take advantage of us. We generally don’t stop to think: “But what if they’re not?” This woman taught me there are good people out there who genuinely care and want to help. And they make this world a good place.
