Maggie, Maggie, Maggie

A friend sent me an email with 5 important lessons in life. Each lesson tells a personal story by an anonymous writer. Yesterday I shared with you the 1st lesson which I posted as Queenie, Queenie, Queenie, and my personal experience applying that lesson (of course, way before I read the 'lesson').

Well, here's the 2nd lesson.

Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance, and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console colour TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached.

It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,
Mrs Nat King Cole

The Local Version – Pickup in the Rain

I came across a similar KL story of such a pickup during an equally dreadful weather situation but minus the racial element. The location was near the old airport, apparently somewhere behind the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka building.

The KL driver, a young Chinese man-about-town, was even more gallant. Seeing how the sweet Chinese lady he had just picked up was shivering because of her wet clothings, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around the young miss. During the drive to her house, he slyly noticed how beautiful the woman was.

What’s your name, he asked, and she replied shyly that it was Maggie. He thought to himself, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, how Irish, how delightfully enchanting.

When they arrived at her place, after a quick thank you, the woman dashed into her house, still with his jacket on. But Sir Galahad thought that would just provide a perfect excuse for him to look up the 20-ish year old beauty. The circumstances were all ngam ngam* set up for a subsequent, perhaps more romantic encounter.

* perfectly

So he was quite happy to leave it to a more auspicious day to pay Maggie a visit, on the excuse of recovering the jacket.

That day came when he dropped into her house. He introduced himself to the elderly couple, who met him at the door. They were probably her grandparents from the looks of their rather vintage years. He explained politely he was there to recover his jacket from Maggie.

The elderly couple gave each other a quick look before they invited him in. He could have sworn that they shook their heads mildly, as if in resignation over something. Hmmm, perhaps their granddaughter was a fairly wild one, and grandparents must be exasperated by another male friend visiting again. Yahooooo, maybe he had hit the jackpot this time!

They took him inside the house until they stood in front of a photo on the wall, and asked whether the lady he helped was the person in the photo? Yes, he replied, delighted to see the same sweet pretty face in the framed picture.

The old couple added "She's our daughter" which surprised the visitor because both must be more than 75 years old, whilst the young women should be only around 20.

What he heard next chilled him. The old man said “She passed away some 30 years ago.”

But it couldn’t be, he protested, reminding them he brought her home just two days ago. Perhaps there might be another young woman in the house?

Alas, no, the old lady replied. “From time to time she would appear next to the cemetery where she’s buried, and hitch a ride home.”

When the man still refused to believe them, by now convinced that they were being protective, trying to throw him off from the trail of their beautiful granddaughter, they offered him directions to her grave.

As he couldn’t get any further with them, he decided to satisfy himself they were lying through their teeth to him. He went to the cemetery along Jalan Lapangan Terbang Lama (Old Airport Road), using their directions, and arrived at the described grave.

He was shocked to see the beauty’s photograph on the tombstone, and there behind the headstone, lying on the mould of earth was his jacket.

The ending to this very well-known KL story varies – some said he didn’t recover from his shock and passed away shortly after, while others said he never ever drove along Old Airport Road again.