At the mercy of Mother Nature

"You are not alone. I am here. I will not leave you." 

He held my hand and looked firmly into my fearful eyes as the hospital rattled around us. Nurses and interns were running from the building and I was lying on an X-ray table with a large machine swaying above me threatening to drop on my fractured ankle. We were in the middle of a 6.7 earthquake - the second to hit Nepal in two days. He was a young Nepali doctor. I was an injured Aussie far from home. We'd known each other for less than five minutes and yet, true to his word, as the ground continued to shake and the hospital was evacuated he stayed by my side - helping me off the table and into a wheelchair to join the others outside the building. There I wept and wept and wept. 

Never have I felt so helpless. So unable to fend for myself. So at the mercy of Mother Nature. So blown away by a stranger's willingness to stand by my side. I am glad that aid is arriving in Nepal from far and wide...that the people of the world, by donating money to the relief effort, are saying to the people of Nepal:

"You are not alone. We are here. We will not leave you."