The Weirdest Thing Happened On The Train

The other day I was on a train from London to Brighton, when a man sat across from me and quickly proceeded to fall asleep with his head lolling forward.

The guy really surprised me by talking to me at length about something very personal.

He felt bound by his loyalty to his family and culture which he loved and respected, but their expectation of him to marry a woman whom he knew little to nothing about became more and more difficult as he grew older.

However, over time he became willing to be ostracized from his entire community, never to return home, in order to be with her, but she did not want to give up all of that up for herself nor her future children. The family was extremely important to her and her family clashed with him over religious differences as well.

After a year and a half without any word from her, this woman finally contacted him again to tell him that she had had a baby girl, his baby, which created quite an uproar in her family. She eventually saved up enough money and summoned the courage to leave her family and begin a new life with this guy.

He told me that it was the happiest day of his life when he received that phone call from her.

He regretted that he missed the birth of his first child, but smiled broadly as he shared that another was soon on the way. They have been very happily married for a little more than a year now.

He told me that it was the phone call and my demeanour that made him share so much with me. He could sense my nervousness.

I had not one piece of nail left to bite and could not stop shaking my foot the entire time we talked. I took a deep breath and tried to relax my nerves when he smiled at me again and took a deep breath himself. My foot stopped shaking.

I smiled back at him and thanked him for reminding me that I might get the chance to be in the delivery room with my sister for her next baby and that everything will be okay.