A little girl — no more than five years old — approached the grandmother. In her hands she held a teddy bear. She bent down carefully, looked at the old woman, and asked softly:
— “Grandma, does it hurt? Where are your children?”
The grandmother lifted her gaze. A faint, kind smile appeared on her face. The girl reached out her tiny hand, trying to help her up.
The girl’s mother, seeing this, quickly rushed over. She helped the grandmother up, sat her on a bench, and immediately called an ambulance. While they waited, the little girl held the old woman’s hand and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, everything will be okay.”
When the ambulance arrived and took the grandmother away, the store fell silent. The people who just moments earlier had watched her suffering with indifference could no longer look each other in the eye.
Only one little girl had shown what true humanity means.
She didn’t walk away, she didn’t turn her head, she wasn’t afraid. And in that moment, she — that small child — was the only person in the entire store who truly had a soul.