How A Girl Who Prayed for My Ankle Forever Changed My View on Belonging

It takes only one act of kindness to touch someone’s life

It was a dark, snowy and cold day in Stockholm.

I was leaving the office after a very negative day at work. I was part of a team where I couldn’t fit in. Every day I kept thinking how I didn’t belong in that team. How I didn’t belong in that company and I didn’t belong in Stockholm.

I was an Albanian girl who moved there for studies two years prior and that was my first job in Sweden.

Those two years of culture shock, dark winters, and cold people had been extremely hard for me.

But work was a completely new level of challenging. I was trying everything I could to figure it out, but I kept feeling very isolated.

I put on my huge scarf and got out in the dark streets.

Heading towards the subway station I start speaking in my mind with God.

“Oh God, it is so hard to be here. I think I don’t belong here. I don’t belong with these people, they are so different and distant.

What am I doing here?”

I enter the station and take the stairs going underground. The station is full of people because it is rush hour. The stairs look like waterfalls of humans.

I look at them and I continue my conversation with God:

“All these people around me and none of them cares about how I feel.

Why should they care. It’s me who left my home and came here.

And what am I doing here? I don’t belong in this place. I don’t belong with them, they are not my people. I am all alone here.”

I’m reaching the end of the electric stairs and lost in my despair I forgot to move swiftly, and my shoe gets trapped there.

That bends my ankle unnaturally for a fraction of a second.

I manage to get off the stairs and walk two steps near a column to lean on it.

I couldn’t breathe.

I felt an intense pain.

Time and space stopped for me.

I couldn’t see anymore the wave of people entering the underground.

And I didn’t care if I would miss my train, or all the trains in the world.

Everything around me got black.

In the middle of the blackness, I feel a hand touching my shoulder and a soft voice of a young girl asking me:

“Are you okay?”

I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t.

She says:

“Do you need help? Should I call an ambulance?”

I shake my head signaling No.

My ankle was hurting pretty bad, but somehow I knew I hadn’t broken or sprained it.

“I see you are in pain and I don’t know how to help you. But I believe in God and He can help everyone. Can I pray for you?”

I looked her in the eyes and I nod, this time signaling Yes.

She goes down towards my ankle, checks it and then puts one hand in it and starts saying a prayer.

I couldn’t hear the prayer.

But my eyes quickly filled with tears.

Not because of the pain, but because of this kindness that was being shown to me.

It was as though God was answering me:

“These are your people too, and you are not alone.

All humans are your people.

Wherever you are, when you need someone, they will show up and help you.

They will show up and pray for you.

You belong everywhere.

You belong to all humanity.”

My breath normalized, and I said to the girl, still with watery eyes:

“Thank you very much for your kindness. I believe in God too and that meant a lot to me. I am feeling better now.”

She smiled and said:

“I am happy to hear. Your ankle looks to be okay, but do you need help to get to your train?”

I tried walking and had only little pain now, so I say that I would be okay.

She gave me another warm smile and said:

“I know you will, you are a strong girl. I will run to catch my train then. God bless you!”

And she disappeared in the middle of the sea of people and I never saw her again.

After I got home and realized the power of that moment I kept thinking about why I didn’t get her name or a contact, so I could find her again to thank her properly.

But now I think it’s better that I didn’t.

Not every person needs to stay in our life.

Some people are meant to show up exactly for the amount of time we need them.

In only a few minutes she changed the way I feel about belonging for the rest of my life.

The memory and the wisdom I gained will forever be with me.

And although I wish I could tell her this, I believe I have a better way to thank her for it.

I can send a prayer for her.

And God will take care of the rest.