Just Be Careful

Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Photo: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/march-on-washington_n_3825167

 

I knew she was going to D.C. for the 50-year-anniversary of MLK’s March on Washington. She’d been in the original one. And on the Freedom Rides. I was so proud of her. I also couldn’t sleep. I wanted her to go. I just couldn’t rid myself of a nagging worry-worm.

“Just be careful,” I texted.

“XO,” she replied hours later.

I watched the march and President Obama’s speech on TV, a lump in my throat for the path and possibility of this country. I scanned for her in the crowd, echoes of concern in my mind, hoped she wasn’t hurting.

“I’m fine,” she said two days later, “just don’t be alarmed when you see me. I tripped when I got off the bus in D.C. Broke my wrist.”

Apparently she’d wrapped a scarf around her arm and marched. Then traveled many hours home before seeing a doctor. True to form.

 

Adding this clip from that day which stands the test of time in its relevance:

 

 

Note: True story from August 28, 2013.

For What Pegman Saw: Washington D.C.

 

26 thoughts on “Just Be Careful”

  2. A GREAT story! Especially so for the realness of it! I remember working overtime in order that the family of the lady I was a caregiver for could go to D.C. for the March! I only wish I could have been able to go, too. Just to be there, on the mall, doing something so powerful! 🙂 ❤

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    • Thanks, Jellico!
      It was quite real. … I would have loved to be there, too, but couldn’t. I do my best to do what I can, action-wise, for I think it is a civil duty and responsibility and privilege to be able to make one’s voice heard and be part of what one believes is important.
      I’m glad you were able to be instrumental in allowing others to represent you – and the rest of us who could not go. You did your part, and I’m happy you had.
      Am sure it was quite a powerful match to be a part of (even with a broken wrist).

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      • The lady I took care of that week was the daughter of a slave. She was a beautiful lady that will always hold a special place in my heart. Her family was always so very good to me.

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      • Wow, amazing what grace can grow out of adversity. I’ve seen it many times and yet it never fails to amaze me. The person I wrote about had had her own challenges to overcome, and her integrity shines through. Beautiful people will have that about them, won’t they?
        So glad you were a part of her life.
        Na’ama

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  3. Great story, I can really feel the concern and also the respect of the narrator. And the strength and conviction of someone who wouldn’t let something like a broken wrist stop her from participating in this historic event!

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  4. Na’ama Y’karah,

    She sounds like a real trooper. I applaud those marches and still mourn the loss of MLK. I wonder how things might have been had the gentle man lived? Wonderfully written piece. Note, a few years back I visited Selma AL with friends. We drove over the famous bridge and it gave me chills. Bigotry is alive and well and thinly veiled in the South.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    I fleshed out one my old FF stories. Seemed to fit the prompt. https://rochellewisoff.com/2019/10/13/instinct/

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    • Thanks, Rochelle.
      Yes, she’s a pretty fab gal and tough as nails while still being a sensitive soul. Hard balance to manage and yet she does. I admire her lots.
      I wonder, too, what would have been had MLK lived. I don’t know to imagine it, really, given the reality of racism and bigotry indeed being a reality which at most a veneer of legal requirement above it. We see it these days in some places. Too many places.
      Though … we did have President Obama, whose ancestry combination made for a first and would not have been possible several decades ago. And though it exposed the belly of racism in those who could not tolerate losing their supposed superiority, it was an important milestone in the National acceptance of human beings as equal no matter their melanin levels … There was a backlash against it, as fear and hate is known to rise in times of change, but this can be the swan song of racism, as current divisions, xenophobia, racism and so on, show themselves to be the opposite of what the Founding Fathers had intended, and more and more are becoming aware of the corruption bigotry and cultism allows.
      Hopefully we’ll have more diversity in the White House very soon, and a woman, too.
      Way past time for a woman president. And for a majority of women in Congress besides.
      Na’ama

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