MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Ruth Hibler doesn’t let her blindness stop her from getting around.
She uses special public transportation and has special railings at her Westwood home to help her.
“After being blind for 16 years, I can get around pretty good if I am feeling good,” says Hibler.
But last Tuesday after being dropped off by a Lyft driver at the end of the driveway something happened.
“He brought me to the end of this post where I catch to go up. Normally I don’t have any problem,” says Hibler.
But that day she got dizzy and didn`t know how to get up the ramp and get to her door.
“See those two cars? Somehow I got on the other side of those cars and I could not focus where I was. It was like I was incoherent,” says Hibler.
She was stuck with no one to help.
“Then I heard these guys say ‘you need some help’? It was like he was down in well talking to me. I said who are you?” she says.
Ms. Hibler didn`t recognize the voices they were young boys and she wasn`t sure if they meant her harm.
“Of course I was scared. I didn’t know if they were gonna knock me in my head or whatever. I was even more scared because I thought I was gonna pass out,” says Hibler.
But the fear was unfounded. The two 7th graders, Fred Hayslett and Justin Wilson, were young alright but they were there to help.
“They grabbed me by the arms, brought me from behind those cars, took me up to that car port door, waiting til I got in and locked the door. Before they got me to the door, one said my name is Justin. The other said my name is Fred,” says Hibler.
“I wasn’t gonna just leave that lady like hanging needing help. I was gonna help her,” says 12-year-old Fred Hayslett.
“If you want to be helped, you should help others. Like how you want to be treated, you should treat others like how you want to be treated,” says 13 year Justin Wilson.
Turns out one of the boys live two doors down from Ms.Hibler, but she didn`t know them. The family moved in after she had been living in her home.
But now she wants everyone to know not all young people are bad.
“How many times do you turn on the news and hear about guys this young coming to help an old blind woman get into the house. You just don’t hear it no more,” says Hibler.
Hibler said Fred’s mother cried when she heard the story. She knew they were practicing what she had been preaching.
“He definitely made me proud to know he took the initiative to do what he felt was right,” says Kisha Davis, mother of the 12-year-old.
And a helping hand has brought these neighbors together, teaching them a lesson about helping others and trusting that there is still good in the world.
“They all are not bad,” says Hibler.
Fred and Justin are 7th graders at Freedom Prep Elementary School and say they plan to help Ms. Hibler anytime she needs it.
