As the leaves begin to change and the first touch of autumn grazes your cheeks, a sense of happiness sweeps through the atmosphere. The air is crisp enough to take your breath away first thing in the morning, yet, come midday, it’s warm enough to pull you into its embrace. The last afternoons of fall are filled with giggles and shrieks soaking up the final bit of warmth before taking cover inside while the earth turns white.
Around the time the leaves begin to fall, families gather to celebrate one another, give thanks for their gifts received throughout the year, and prepare for the upcoming Christmas season.
Typically, my family’s Thanksgiving is filled with an abundance of turkey, desserts, football, and napping; I would compare it to your standard American holiday. All aunts, uncles, and adult cousins are responsible for bringing a side dish or sweet large enough to feed the masses. We spend many hours playing games and planning our Black Friday purchases.
In recent years we’ve started a new tradition consisting of packing on the layers of clothing, standing in line, and all waiting for the doors to open just to buy The Perfect Pillow, it really will change your life.
This Thanksgiving, though, my immediate family wasn’t able to spend this time with our extended family because we all thought it was our time to explore the world, so I spent Thanksgiving in Montenegro with five beautiful friends.
Our journey began on a furgeon heading north to a neighboring city. There we planned to catch a bus to take us across the border, just to catch two more busses before arriving in Kotor, Montenegro. Instead, though, after our first furgeon ride we found ourselves in two taxis (I would use the word taxi lightly because they were just two men in their personal cars) willing to drive us to the bus station across the border. Once we arrived, instead of taking the next two busses, we found it to be cheaper to take a legitimate taxi straight to Kotor.
This is how we met Mano.
Walking into the bus station he stopped us asking where we were headed, clearly noticing we were tourists; our looks of confusion and awe may have given us away. After finding out we were heading to Kotor he proceeded to spew off a list of numbers essentially proving to us taking his taxi would be cheaper and more efficient than the busses we were planning on.
After a team powwow and some prayer we settled on taking Mano’s taxi, this ended up being one of the best decisions we made.
During our almost two hour car ride, we got the opportunity to get to know Mano. We were able to hear about his three beautiful daughters and their successes, his young Swedish lover who taught him English in 1981, and learn about a man who’s heart is bigger than he.
Mano isn’t just a taxi driver, he is a provider, a father, a pillar of strength, and a friend. He makes it his purpose to never know a stranger, but to only see familiar faces. From the moment we entered his taxi, I began to develop a kinship with this complete stranger. He welcomed us into his life and, in return, we did the same.
Before arriving at our destination we made plans to see Mano again on our return home. At this point, we could fully enjoy our short holiday vacation without the stress of finding our way back in a foreign land. For that, this Thanksgiving, I am forever thankful for the accidental meeting with my dear friend Mano.
