I was woken up at 05:00 by a call from a friend in distress this morning. The moment I answered and heard her voice on the line I knew she was in a panic, but what could it possibly be?
Everything is wet she shrieked;
I am ankle deep in water she confirmed her stress situation to me. My immediate reaction was a giggle as I could not properly comprehend this, she lives on the top floor of a three storey building and we did not have any rain for the past 4 days in Jozie, so natural elements it could definitely not be! She did not know where the water was coming from she continued, but everything is soaked she exclaimed.
So what would you do in a situation like this? Well naturally I rolled out of bed, put on some clothes, washed my face, brushed my teeth, grabbed a mop and some old newspapers and jumped in the car... The pregnant fairy to the rescue...
But it is not about my subtle attempt to help that I would like to write about today. Instead I would like to share a tale of true friendship that I had witnessed this morning. As I was walking up the 3 flights of stairs to my friend's apartment I caught the first glimpse of the disaster - water was literally dripping down the stairs by this stage! I could hear the swooshing of water being poured into what I could only imagine being the bathtub or a massive bucket and I could hear the cool, calm and collected voices of two woman clearly dealing with this problem - a contrast to the frantic phone call I received only a few minutes ago.
Perhaps a neighbour aiding my distressed friend I thought; as I entered I found Suzie, still in her pajamas, drying, lifting and moving her belongings out of harms way in the living area, but the swooshing noises were coming from the bedroom. In the bedroom I found another dear friend of ours, Sarize, still in her sleeping shorts and a t-shirt, literally pouring buckets of water from the bedroom into the bath. Now what is strange to me is that Sarize lives only a few blocks from my house, yet here she was in her pj's cleaning Suzie's apartment and it seemed like she was already in the swing of things so she clearly arrived quite a while before I did. I grabbed my mop and started in the bathroom, hoping to be able to make a dent in the deep waters and it was not for another half an hour before we could see the light at the end of tunnel and see the water level slowly dropping.
At about 6:15 Sarize told us that she had to leave as she was hosting an event for her company this morning and had to get to the office early, so as she was packing up her buckets, brooms and mops (yes plural) I asked weather she had perhaps spent the night at Suzie's, this was the only logical conclusion I could arrive at, but to my surprise she casually said
No. So my next question was naturally why she was still wearing her pajamas and then she said this: "
If a friend in need phones you at 5 in the morning, you don't ask questions you just come" and then it all made sense! She got here as fast as she could, she didn't even bother to change her clothes, she came to help a friend as fast as possible - wow! How inspiring! Sarizie your selfless actions often inspire me, but this morning you really outdone yourself! Well done! Who needs guardian angels if you have friends like you!
In the end we were not able to establish where the water was coming from, but it looks like it might have been from a damaged pipe below the basin, the landlord arrived just as I was leaving, so I am sure I will be getting an update from Suzie soon. For now I am still helping by washing and drying Suzie's towels, bedding and blankets that did not survive the flood and I hope that her beautiful apartment will be in top form again soon.
Perhaps a long read for a short story, but I really learned something of true friendship this morning! Have a lovely Friday dear readers! xoxo
