can you help me?

 i was standing in the river today.

standing in the river has become part of my daily routine. it helps my aching knees and is generally very pleasant. i put on a hat, wrinkle my toes into the rocky sand, and read a book while the water blows by. it's pleasant as fuck honestly, most days i look forward to it.

today, a woman walked along the shore near where i was standing. she had two dogs with her, beautiful animals that loved to swim. one of the dogs had a toy in its mouth, a red toy, which it dropped into the water when it got distracted by something else. the woman called out to me,

"can you help me? would you mind grabbing that toy there?"

and i said "sure, no problem" and started trudging towards it. it's hard to walk when you're knee deep in water.

but then something happened, something i didn't see, and i heard the woman saying "oh no oh no oh no" while i fished out the toy. and when i looked up she was almost directly in front of me and she was crying.

"i just hit my dog in the head with this rock. everything seems to be going wrong today! i hope he's okay i hope he's okay i hope he's okay..."

i had the feeling that she was having a breakdown. that she was a regular person with a regular life, for whom this one thing had just been too much - like so much pressure had suddenly burst when she hit her dog with a rock. it wasn't about the dog at all.

the crying was turning into sobbing, sobs that she was trying to hold back. she took the toy from my hand and started walking backwards

"i'm sorry, i'm really sorry, thank you for your help, i'm really sorry..."

apologizing for her tears.

i know what my dad would have done in this situation. offered his hand or his arm and held this person - given her a space to express her grief - and somehow make the whole thing seem natural. 

but i just stood there and sort of muttered "it's totally okay, no worries" and watched her back away.