Encounter at the gym

When I just finished my workout at the gym today and was preparing to leave, a staff suddenly asked me, "do you speak Chinese?"  I said yes.. and he asked me to quickly go with him to help a Chinese girl "who fainted and is doing real bad".  As we approached the crowd of EMS staff, I saw the thin Chinese graduate student sitting in a chair, breathing shallowly and gasping for breath.

The EMS staff asked me to translate some questions for her, so I did, and from her answers, she probably had a minor stroke. The staff gave her an oxygen masked and asked her to breath slowly. We tried to use her phone to reach someone she knows, but the phone was hard to figure out how to use. We made several attempts to call her most recent contact, her mentor, but he didn't pick up. Suddenly I was fearful that she had no friends or family here... after failing at contacting her friends, the staff finally moved her to a stretcher and onto an EMS car, off to St.Luke's hospital.

As I watched the EMS car driving away, several things came to mind....

• God has definitely placed me here for a purpose, and even though at times I question Him, today's event is another confirmation of His will for me to be at where I am 
• Thank God for my bilingual skills, never thought knowing Chinese would be useful in medicine, Indeed it is a gift, and perhaps picking up some medical Chinese will come handy one day. 
• Life is so fragile, our body so weak. Just yesterday I was reading up articles on my skin condition, and even though it's nothing life-threatening, it can be scary. And today, this young Chinese lady who appears healthy, suddenly experience a stroke with no warning.  It just makes me feel so grateful of my own life... be thankful of the everyday.  Today is a present. 
• Thankful for my parents, friends, brothers and sisters who are here and who I can count on to care and pray for me if such incidence occur.  And of course, thankful for God who gives me peace and hope that everything is under His sovereign will. This life is no longer mine.