Diversity of Love – AKA Uber Update

Just wow.

Glen and I returned to Molly’s Rise and Shine for breakfast this morning. It’s a ways out Magazine toward the Garden District in a nice little neighborhood. It’s a definite Uber ride for us to get there. Glen loves their biscuits and gravy; I love their fried chicken biscuit sandwich. Whew. Today it was spicy.

Our outgoing Uber driver was talkative and interesting. He’s from Florida and retired from the Navy. (Another side-hustler.) BUT OUR RETURN UBER DRIVER WAS A STORY UNTO ITSELF!

We get into the small Nissan Versa and before we were half a block away, our middle-aged driver said that he had just “met his daughter”. Hmm…He told us that his wife had died and a year later he spent a short time with a woman. They both agreed to go their separate ways. What he didn’t know was that she was pregnant.

So wiping his eyes, he continued to tell us that this morning, he had picked up a female rider before us. As she got in the back seat of his car, she said that he looked familiar and he replied that she looked familiar, too. Somehow they sorted out that she was his daughter. Her mother had died in childbirth and she was raised by her two aunties. It turns out that her mother was the woman he had had a short relationship with so many years ago. He never knew that the woman was pregnant or that she had died. He definitely never knew that he was a father for a second time. (He has a daughter by his deceased wife.)

We traveled through the streets of New Orleans listening to this man pour out his heart. He told us that they had hugged, exchanged contact information and promised to get together to talk more. He repeatedly told us that he told her if there was “ever anything he could do for her…just let him know”. Imagine starting your work day like that!

As we continued our drive home, he kept talking and told us that he was thinking of quitting his other job (Uber is a side-hustle for him) and as we neared our house, he said that he had just needed to “tell somebody” his news…and there we were on the corner of Magazine and First just waiting to listen. Glen shared that we have learned so much about New Orleans and its people by meeting our Uber drivers and he told us that he never came to “this side of the river” until he started driving. He loves it. He says the people are beautiful and different. He called it “diversity of love”.

We felt honored to be the recipient of his emotional news and though we likely won’t run into him again, we will always hold a place for him and his two daughters in our hearts.

Diversity of love. Carry it forward.

GAT = THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN EVERY DAY!!