The train driver waited while I found my mother

Dear Delyara, My mother has dementia and wandered away from me at a station during rush hour. I realised only after the train doors opened. She had stepped out while I was lifting our bags. I shouted, but commuters moved between us and the doors began closing. The driver saw me panicking, reopened them, and held the train while station staff searched the platform. Hundreds of passengers waited. Some complained. The driver did not move. They found my mother sitting on a bench at the far end, calmly eating a biscuit she had taken from my bag. When we returned, the driver came out of the cab and asked whether she was all right. I tried to apologise for delaying everyone. He said, “A timetable can recover. People are harder.” Months later, I wrote to the transport company and learned his name. Today, my mother and I met him at the station with a thank-you card. She did not remember the incident. She offered him a biscuit. He accepted it as though it were an honour.