My sister and I stayed many sleepless nights at a local hospital as our mother was in critical condition.. ICU and all that goes with it. There was a man..a white man.. close to our age who sat alone for as many days as we had. The worry on his face..the tense conversations he had with the dr's....

We're African American women. He was much more polite to us. I'm so ashamed to admit it.. We were not very kind to him. He offered every time he went for a bottle of water to bring us something back.. We just said no.. Not no thank you..Not thanks for asking..Just No..

Being a huge inner city hospital they don't allow anyone in at night after 9 pm unless you have an ID..Late one Saturday night the lobby was just a horrible place. We had walked out to our car but had left our purses 12 floors up.

The guards said NO..No ID No entry.. Before we could even get real mad this voice came out of no where and my life was forever changed.

"Sir..these ladies have been sitting across from me for the last 6 days as their mom is in ICU..Here is my ID..I can vouch for them They going through a lot...I'm going through a lot with my wife"..His voice choked up as he spoke....Please .let them pass.."

His arms went over our shoulders as he spoke.. His genuine warmth of kindness and compassion brought tears to our eyes.. The guard agreed .. The man walked with us to the elevator holding our hands. We found in him a complete 100% genuine person..

Over the next few days we cried together..laughed together....We were all he had when his wife passed a week later. They hadn't lived in our state long..They had no family and he hadn't even met his co-workers yet as she ended up in the hospital as soon as they arrived.

Our mother came through and is fine.. This sweet mans heart was so broken. We were two of only a few people at her funeral. We have all remained friends since that sad time. He is our best friend. Sadness brought us together but our bond of friendship holds us tight.

I was as racist as could be and now I hate myself for it. We're all just people. Every race of people has the good bad and the ugly. This man never judged us. We were just rude... My only regret is I wish we'd known him soon.. He is our "pal" We love him to death and vice versa....