There was something comforting in her voice, something familiar in a person I’d only known for a handful of hours. By the time they cleared me to leave, she helped me to my car, refusing to go until my husband arrived. Before stepping away, she wrapped me in a warm, steady hug and whispered, “No mother should face fear alone.”
I never saw Clara again, but I think about her often — about how her compassion turned one of the scariest days of my life into a reminder that goodness still exists. Some people stay in your memory not because they’re family or friends, but because they appear at the exact moment your world begins to crumble and quietly hold it together. And sometimes, the greatest angels you meet are strangers you never see twice.
