The message in the paper crane
A seven-year-old girl in Japan rides her new bicycle into a wall because the brakes fail. A man she doesn’t know helps her up, rinses the wound on her foot and lets her phone her grandfather on his phone. While they wait, he shows her how to fold a paper crane, perhaps so that she forgets the pain for a moment.
As a goodbye he gives her the crane and leaves without a word. Ten years later, working on a school assignment, she remembers him, unfolds the crane and finds the Japanese saying “Ichigo ichie” inside: every encounter is unique and therefore precious.
Is there someone you met only briefly and have never forgotten?