We hear it so often, it’s become a sometimes frustrating platitude, but Uber driver Belinda believes it’s true: Everything happens for a reason.
Nikki Ihus traveled from Kansas City to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she delivered her baby boy, John Henry, who suffered a rare birth defect — a congenital diaphragmatic hernia — and needed specialized care to survive, according to WFLA-TV.
In layman’s terms, Ihus said, her son has “a hole in the diaphragm that allowed the organs in his stomach to move up into his chest.”
Ihus was alone in a new city and anxious to leave her newborn son, but she needed to go to a nearby children’s clothing store — Rhea Lana’s — to buy supplies and a few more outfits for her baby boy. So she called an Uber, and Belinda was her driver.
When she arrived at the hospital, Belinda said Ihus immediately sat down in the backseat and “told me her story,” even crying a couple times.
“I really felt for her,” the driver said.
When they arrived at Rhea Lana’s, Ihus assumed the ride was over, but it wasn’t the end of the road for Belinda, who decided to go into the consignment shop with Ihus and helped purchase clothes for John Henry.
The outfits Belinda bought were all hero-themed.
“For this stranger to go completely out of her way — stop what she was doing and stop making money — to come be with me for a couple of hours while we shopped together, that was just incredible,” Ihus said. “She is my hero.”
The two women have stayed connected ever since the Uber ride. In fact, Ihus is planning to introduce John Henry to Belinda in the coming days.
Please pray for Ihus and John Henry. If you would like to donate a few dollars to help cover his medical costs, you can do so here.