A random act of kindness in Chicago has gone viral after a stranger extended a helping hand to a blind Cubs fan over the weekend.
According to Fox59, over the weekend, 26-year-old Casey Spelman, who originally hails from Indiana, was exploring Wrigleyville with some friends when she noticed a man holding a cane who appeared to have difficulty hailing a cab.
“I just said, ‘Hi, are you trying to get a cab?’ and he said yes, and I said, ‘Would you like some help?’ and he said, ‘That’d be great,’” Spelman told the news station.
She said she had seen him waiting for a while and thought he might need help because the streets were crowded after the Cubs game.
“People were in front of him, so I thought it might help him a little bit if he stepped in a little further,” Spelman said. And so, with the man’s permission, she took his hand and hailed him a cab. She didn’t know that someone else had spotted the exchange from the rooftop and started snapping pictures.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really cool, I’ve never seen something like this,’” Ryan Hamilton, the man behind the viral pictures, told Fox59.
“There’s so much negative stuff going on in the world, and this was the opposite of that,” he added.
Spelman didn’t manage to catch the name of the Cubs fan but did manage to get him into a cab in no time.
“He said, ‘Give me a hug,’ and I gave him a big hug and he said, ‘God bless you and have a great night,’ and I said, ‘Thank you; you, too,’” she said.
That fan has been identified by WGNTV as Yusef Dale, whose friend saw him all over the news and gave him a call.
“He was like, ‘You never accept help. How did it come to be that that day, you came to accept some help?’” Dale told WGN.
Dale acknowledged that after the game, the streets were packed, loud and chaotic, a fact that also impaired his hearing.
“The ambience of the area, it was difficult,” he said.
In addition, when Spelman offered to help, Dale said that she did it in exactly the right way.
“She did not presume I was incompetent or unable,” he said. “She didn’t get in my personal space, and most importantly, she didn’t touch me, which is an issue for some people with disabilities.
“It was one of those rare occasions I needed help,” he added. “The power of social media is amazing. You fully appreciate it when you are fully impacted by it.”
Indeed, sometimes humanity proves that there’s still hope.