Considerate young man belies modern stereotype

Q: What’s with the young people of today? And some of the older ones as well? When driving, they are always in a hurry, can’t stop for anything, including pedestrians, stop signs, and stop lights. One can only assume that they carry such an attitude to other activities, as well. What ever happened to thinking of others and being considerate? I’m almost afraid to drive or walk anywhere.
A: There certainly are a great many obnoxious and dangerous people around us. As a pedestrian I have nearly been hit several times while crossing a street in a legal crosswalk, and I definitely have been driving in a much more defensive way to try to ensure my own safety. “Thoughtless” and “rude” are words that are extremely common in my mind, not to mention that old quote from the early 1940’s –“People are no damn good”.
There are exceptions, however, and not all young people are unpleasant and unthinking. Let me describe a totally unselfish and thoughtful young man with whom I was in contact a while ago.
My husband and I were having dinner at a very nice restaurant. Towards the end of the meal, he said that he was not feeling well and wished to leave. When he tried to arise from the table, however, he felt extremely light-headed. I quickly went over to the young maitre d’hotel (here-after known as Mr. G.) to get some help, but before Mr. G and I could reach him, my husband had fainted and collapsed.
Mr. G. immediately called the emergency telephone number, and the ambulance and fire department arrived very quickly. My near-and-dear had regained consciousness by that time, but it was decided that he should be taken immediately to the nearest hospital, which, unfortunately, was about thirty miles away. I was unable to leave with him because I needed to pick up some things in our hotel room that I had not taken to dinner.
I was reluctant to drive so far by myself. It was dark and I didn’t have any idea how to find the hospital. There were no taxis nearby so I considered calling one from the city where the hospital was located. At that point, Mr. G said that he would be happy to drive me. He was very persuasive, saying that her could leave others in charge and we could start off when I was ready. It was only later that I realized that he could have been in trouble if a problem had developed in the restaurant.
We drove nearly an hour to reach the hospital, Mr. G came in with me and waited while I visited my husband and was so relieved to discover that nothing serious was wrong. The physicians were not ready to release him, however, and I didn’t want to take up more of Mr. G’s time, so I decided to return to the hotel.
We had a nice chat, and we exchanged information about our lives. When we returned, I insisted that I must pay him, but he absolutely refused, making it clear that he would be insulted if I made a further issue of it. We have seen Mr. G again a few times and have been quite friendly. He knows about the Mind Works program, and graciously accepted a copy of my book “Don’t Lose Your Mind”.
Here I have described an example of an outstanding, caring, thoughtful, and totally unselfish young person. I will always be indebted to him.