My husband pulled up to the curb and I hopped out of our rental car to use the bathroom at Bryce Canyon National Park. The woman already waiting turned to smile at me upon my arrival. “What is Sister Rain?,” she asked, seeing my t-shirt with its name, logo, tagline and url on the front.
“It’s my website,” I replied.”I’m a writer and I write stories about travel and life. I’m legally blind and I also write about life after sudden vision loss.”
“You are?!,” she exclaimed. “Bless your heart.”
A teenaged boy exited the unisex restroom. “You can go ahead of me,” the woman who inquired about my shirt said.
“No, thank you,” I answered, stepping away to grab a Sister Rain postcard from the car where I keep a supply for situations just like this.
She must have had someone else go in before her because she was still standing there when I returned.
“Here.” I handed her the card. “This shows my website address and there’s a QR code you can scan and it will take you right to it.”
A gentleman came out of the seemingly most popular place in the national park. The woman handed him the Sister Rain postcard. “She is blind and she’s a writer. Talk to her,” she instructed before walking to the bathroom door.
He took the card, looking at me. “Really?”
“Yep,” I answered, not quite sure where this was going or how it would end.
“I want to give you a hug.”
Before I could accept or decline gracefully, he was giving me a side embrace.
I asked where they were from and he said Nashville. He wanted to scan the QR code right there, so that I could have the card back. I held the postcard while he lined up the barcode in his phone camera lens.
When his partner came out of the restroom, it was my turn. “The soap dispenser is right above the sink. I pulled some extra toilet paper down for you,” she kindly explained to me.
Thanking her, we said our goodbyes.
Exiting the bathroom a few minutes later, I noticed the woman walking away from our rental car. She had approached the driver’s side window as she headed to her her own vehicle to say hello to Mister Rain. He was wearing the Bruce Springsteen t-shirt he got at the Boss’s concert we had attended last year.
“When she walked over I rolled down the window. She immediately asked if I was disrespecting our President by wearing ‘that shirt.’ I didn’t know if she was kidding or what to say, but I knew I wasn’t getting into a political conversation with a stranger while sitting in the parking lot at a National Park while my wife used the facilities. Then she said something about Bruce being very outspoken.”
I shared my experience with the couple with him as we headed to our next destination. It had been a lovely interaction, no matter what any of us thinks of the current administration. That’s how it should be but often it is not.
A few weeks later, I checked my SisterRain.net analytics. There, under the Cities heading was data that a visitor from Nashville has been coming to the site.
Never underestimate the power of having to use the bathroom.
Or the power of what is printed on your t-shirt.
#SisterRain #ALittleSightALotOfHeart #LegallyBlindWriter #HumanInterest #Life #LifeIsGood #LifeStories #Storytelling #NPS
