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Old 10-19-2005, 05:50 AM
diebitter diebitter is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 417
Default How do you handle a crying stranger you unintentionally interrupted?

This is bothering me, and I'd like a line on it.

I went to the train station 2 days ago, and walked into a waiting room and interrupted a young lady crying to herself - just me and her.

I did my best here - and I think I helped a little. I sat away from her, and stayed still. I asked if she was okay and asked if I could get anything for her, and she said she was okay.

I said if she'd like to talk to someone, I could be a good listener, and she said no.

I said 'stuff just happens, huh?', and she smiled a bit and said, 'yeah, stuff happens'.

We sat there for about 5 minutes, just quiet, and she stopped crying and composed herself, and her train came, and she left, and she said goodbye.

I said 'take care now', and she smiled, and said 'yeah, you take care too'.

Was I doing okay here? I feel bad about it - sometimes I feel I should have left her alone, sometimes I feel I did fine cos I at least showed concern to someone probably feeling pretty isolated, and sometimes I feel I should have tried harder to get her to open up a bit, and maybe I woulda helped better...

Did I do okay? How would you handle this differently?
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