I had this rather unpleasant experience a little over a year ago. Why I never blogged about it till now is a good question. Nonetheless I am doing it now to pay tribute and salute a very brave woman, who came to my rescue on the train.

It began at Faringdon station unroute to Kings Cross station or maybe from Kings Cross to Camden, my memory is a bit foggy now. I was one of a number of people trying to get unto the train from the platform. As I entered the train I was suddenly made aware of the fact that someone was shouting at me. I turned round to stare into the face of a small tattooed fellow who was shouting all kinds of racist expletives at me and accusing me of pushing him. I was so aghast that I actually looked behind me to see if I was the object of his attentions. He was obviously not very pleased with me and was loosening his clothing in a threatening manner in preparation for a fight. In my mind I thought "Jeez, not again, I'm going to have to fight now".

All of a sudden, a quiet voice cut through the air and firmly declared "Stop that, you've had too much to drink, He did not push you, just sit down". It was a large elderly Caucasian lady (probably English) about 50ish in dark clothes. She pushed me along and I shuffled along dazed and stood at the other end of the train watching the fellow who had now taken a seat and was mumbling and continuing to insult me. The carriage was silent and as usual when there is trouble in a London train all the news papers went up. The old see no evil, hear no evil business. The insults continued, till the woman had heard enough and she told him to shut up. The fellow then quipped "Why are you standing up for that Wop?". The event that followed shocked be beyond belief. The lady (bless her brave soul), put her book on her seat, stood up, walked to the fellow, waggled her finger at him and gave him a resounding slap with her left hand. I have never been so stunned in my life. She then calmly walked back to her seat and continues reading. The fellow looked as stunned as I was and just rubbed his face mumbling "You hit me..", to which she replied, "If you do not stop I will again.." and calmly continued reading. I got off at the next station after mumbling my thanks to this angel of mercy.

The moral of this story is that there are good people and bad people, cowardly and brave irrespective of race or creed. I salute that angel, she saved me that day. God bless her, and may people stand up for her as she did for a complete African stranger