The Old Man in A White Coat.

Isn't it crazy that we interact with strangers every single time we go outside? In PSVs when you sit beside or between completely new faces, in restaurants when you go to grab some food, in shops and supermarkets when you stop by to buy something, in the streets when you go for those solo evening walks... the list is endless.

'Interacting' doesn't necessarily mean having random conversations with the outlanders we cross paths with, people love to mind their business. I bet you do, too. But once in a while, the randomness of life has people falling in love, making new friends and meeting business partners or potential employers, to mention but a few. Other times though, you witness or get involved in experiences that stay with you, forever.

People who know me well know that I love having conversations and listening to people's life experiences, whether in podcasts or in real life. And for that reason, I enjoy asking people close to me random questions amid our chats. That's what brings us to today's piece. Last week I asked someone to tell me a memorable encounter he has had with a stranger in the past. And after he did, he asked me to do the same. I didn't know I still remembered this incident so vividly, but I guess our subconscious minds never forget. I don't know if I told my story so well or if the randomness of it caught him, probably the latter. And this was my encounter:

It was in 2022. One of my big sisters was living in Nakuru back then and I had been at her place for a few days, to breathe some away-from-school air. So on the day I was travelling back to Eldoret I got to the stage and boarded a 14-seater PSV that was like half-full. A couple of annoying hawker-persuasions later, we were waiting for one last passenger so we could leave.

Then came a very old man who looked so sickly. It was so hot that day but he was dressed in a white jacket, zipped all the way up.By the time I noticed him he was being helped to board the car. I have no idea how he got there because he couldn't even stand on his own. The guys who helped him in tried questioning him but he only managed to mumble a few words.

As soon as he sat he started to kind of have difficulties breathing.He lay his head on the top part of his seat but he couldn't stay steady, so a young man who was seated next to him held him against his seat. And we thought he lost consciousness. A little while later, we were in front of an 'emergency room' in a hospital whose name I don't remember. Nurses came running and then he was in a gurney being rushed inside.

All these happened within minutes and before we could process it all, we were informed that he was confirmed dead on arrival.Damn! 

The mood in the car was so sombre you could feel it. As we left the hospital and throughout our journey to Eldoret, I couldn't stop thinking about him - where he was headed to, what he was ailing from, how it felt to breathe your last in the company of strangers and not your family or at least in a hospital, whether he had children who would probably never know what exactly happened to their dad...I didn't forget his face for a really long time and it was so disturbing.

Maybe I should ask my friends to tell me about their encounters of this kind and my next piece can be a series of interesting stories, right? 

You, reader, can also comment with such a story. And thank you for being here.