Always pays to be careful

Just got back from lunch, and I thought while this event was on my mind I'd blog over it.

It was a quiet lunch at a restaurant I enjoy. A little sandwich shop not far from where I work (2 minutes drive or so). It's been a good stretch since I'd had time to write because I've had so much programming work to do, and this was my first chance to just get quiet and pour out some prose. Well pour over since I was editing anyhow.

I was mostly done, the restaurant was empty (they know me there so sometimes they leave me alone for short stretches in the store by myself) when a woman at the table behind me spilled something. I didn't worry too much, but started saving my manuscript. Time to get the mop.

But instead she had spit up her meal and was choking on a piece of bread or something else from her sandwich. I did the usual, "Ma'am are you alright?" I got the head shake and wheeze reply. So I stood and knocked the food out with the heimlich maneuver. Smart guy that Heimlich. I'd buy him a drink if I could. Couple of rounds of that and she was breathing easier.

She told me she was a widow, her husband passed only, quite literally, a week before. She had choked like this one other time in her life a long time ago. I smiled a lot with some "You'll be alright now" and tried to help her clean up but she wouldn't have any of it. I'd helped her out of a jam and she wanted to clean up herself. So I sat down and just kept her company for the rest of my lunch. She finally got the rest of her sandwich to go and left. When I left it got me to thinking about two things: First, how interconnected everything and everyone in life really is and Second, just how important it is to chew slowly and not rush a meal!

I hope she'll be ok. She seemed shaken but none the worse for wear.