Kindness of stranger helps save the day

Hilda Mijangos spoke very little English when she moved to Manhattan.

“I had just turned 16 and was living in Puerto Rico when my sister sent for me. She needed my help to take care of her baby boy.

“New York was such a big culture change for me. I was crying day and night. I missed Puerto Rico so much.

“Then one day, I got lost. My sister was living in Manhattan on 124th Street, very close to the train station. She told me that when the baby got up the next morning, I should dress him, feed him and meet her at a bakery in the Bronx. She never told me that there’s an express train and a local train.

“The one I got on was going very fast, and it kept going and going. I thought, what’s happening? When is this train going to stop? When it finally did, I grabbed the baby and got out, but I had no idea where I was.

“I was carrying the baby and crying, when this old Italian man approached me and said, ‘What’s the matter, bambino?’ I could hardly speak any English, but he was able to figure out that I was lost. When he asked me where I was going, I told him the Bronx. And he said, ‘No, no, no. You’ve gone too far. Too far.’ He grabbed my token, took me upstairs and said, ‘Go down there. Get on that train.’ That’s why I got lost. I had taken the wrong train. I finally got on the right one and arrived at the bakery. My sister was there, wondering what had happened to me.

“And to this day, I still remember that old Italian man. I believe he was an angel that God put in front of me. If not for him, I might still be lost in New York.”

— Hilda Mijangos, 75