As a proud Minnesotan, the events of the past week have further clouded my brain’s ability to recall life in this place when our community wasn’t in the midst of processing collective trauma.

The last decade has produced successive tragedies with a compounding effect that has left those of us who call this place home wondering if, not when, we’ll return to a time when we’re not at the epicenter of the storm of political tribalism and social fragmentation.

This isn’t a political post to address those tragedies but to share a story that reflects the Minnesota I’ll continue to fight to maintain as the dynamism of the moment swirls around us.

On Jan. 1, I was at the Mall of America with my partner, Diana Hawley, walking amid a packed crowd of shoppers and visitors in town for the World Juniors Hockey Tournament.

As we came around the southeast corner on the second floor, I noticed a young man who appeared to be in his 20s walking a few feet ahead of us slowly stop and start to shake his head.

In the moment, I had to make a split-second decision if he needed help or was someone with a unique gait simply trying to make his way through the crowd.

I stepped toward him, and in that instant he began to collapse toward the floor as his full body convulsed and his eyes began to roll back in his head.

He was having a grand mal (now called “generalized tonic-clonic”) seizure, and I helped catch him and lower him to the ground while fellow bystanders came to help.

Two women immediately joined me in rolling him on his side and putting Diana’s scarf under his head to prevent injury from his convulsions.

The manager of the jewelry store we were in front of immediately came out and called MOA security for help as I called 911.

One of the women cradled the man’s head in her lap as she cleared his mouth of spittle and blood (he appeared to have bit his tongue) and kept talking to him in a calm, steady voice, telling him help was on the way and that we were there to care for him.

Another passerby who appeared to be a medical professional stopped while I was on the phone with 911 and started to attempt to diagnose whether the man was taking medication(s) or had taken any drugs that may have induced a seizure response.

The five or six minutes we waited for MOA security personnel to arrive felt like hours as we huddled around this man and the 911 operator gave me guidance on how to keep him calm and on the ground (he was trying to stand up in a state of panic and disorientation) until paramedics arrived.

Two MOA security personnel arrived and the two women cradling the man continued to do so while the security personnel took his blood pressure.

A few minutes later, three Bloomington firefighters arrived on the scene, followed by two Allina Health paramedics responding to the 911 call. The paramedics transferred the man to a gurney and he was alert, conscious, and able to share his preferences for further medical care with them.

My brain took a picture of that moment that will stay with me forever.

A young man with tears on his cheeks on a gurney surrounded by seven medical and first responders and a group of five strangers who saw someone in need and stepped in to render aid together.

By my eyes and ears this young man and the group of caregivers and first responders reflected people from multiple racial and cultural identities and socioeconomic lived experiences that outside the MOA might view each other with suspicion or mistrust, but in this moment we were all united in rendering aid to a stranger in need.

It was a reminder of the kindness of strangers and the helpers in our midst.

It was a reminder that Minnesota is a place where we care for one another despite our differences.

It was a reminder of what Minnesota and Minnesotans are all about: We help one another, we care for one another, and we hope that when our moment of need comes we’ll be in Minnesota when it happens versus anywhere else in the world.

Thank you fellow strangers, MOA security and retail staff, the Bloomington firefighters and the Allina paramedics for an unexpected and incredibly timely shot of optimism.

To the young man who was wheeled away for further care, may you find healing, recovery and continued care from this community.

To those reading this who call Minnesota home, don’t lose hope, keep helping, as we make our way forward together.

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