The woman in the waiting room held my place and I nearly cried over the decency of it

Dear Delyara, It sounds so small when I write it. I was at the clinic, already tense, already tired, already trying to manage my own nerves quietly like a responsible adult. I needed the toilet but was afraid of missing my name being called because I had already waited so long. The woman next to me must have seen something in my face because she leaned over and said, “Go. I’ll tell them if they call you.” That was all. No speech. No intimacy. Just a simple human act of making space for me in a hard moment. I think what undid me was how little of my life currently feels that easy. So much of the world feels extractive, rushed, defended, transactional. Then one stranger quietly makes room for you and your whole body remembers what kindness without agenda feels like. I did cry later. Not because of the clinic. Because I was tired enough for ordinary decency to feel miraculous.