Bus Prayers & DA Letters

So this happened to me a month or two ago.

I take the bus to and from work. I was waiting for the bus alone. I generally feel pretty safe at this bus stop because it's right in front of mall, though it's by one of the more dead entrances and the mall itself is kind of dying.

This woman sat down next to me on the bench. She was carrying 3 or 4 bags, one of which was filled with clothes. She accidentally let go of this bag and I was quick to pick her things back up. She started trying to make conversation with me. She told me her name and I told her mine, she then told me about her sisters' and kids' names. She then started talking about the weather and how she was anemic and I was just sitting there like "damn that sucks." She then asked me what bus I was taking. I subtly began looking around to check if this was some sort of trafficking trap I was walking into. I reluctantly told her the bus number, hoping that would be enough information for her, but she also wanted to know if I was taking bus 69 A or 69 B. I told her I was talking 69 B, and thankfully she was taking 69 A.

She then asks if I could write something for her, telling me should would keep track of my bus with the Septa app, so we knew how much time I had to write.

She then pulled out a notebook, and as she flipped through to a blank page, I could see that each page had different handwriting. My first thought was that this was some personal social project or something.

She asked me to write a prayer, as this was her prayer notebook. I basically write "Dear God, thank you A,B,C." Whatever. Nothing too crazy. She would ask me to read to her what I had written every 3 or 4 sentences.

She then asked me to write something else for her and pulls out a separate notebook. She has me write "Dear Sharon," then explains to me that Sharon is her kids' District Attorney. :0 "Please let me have my kids back. I am very sorry about what I did to my daughter." I'm just sitting there writing, thinking "what did you do to your daughter?" She then has me write a couple reasons as to why she should get her kids back. As I am writing this letter, she is dumping on me the living situation of her children and sister. She then starts asking me what else she should write. It's at this point I realize that she cannot read. I didn't know if I wanted her to get her kids back, so I didn't want to help her come up with reasons. I just tell her that I don't want to speak for her and she accepts this answer after asking me 2 or 3 times what else she should write.

Finally, my bus arrived, and I tried to give her back her stuff, but before she would let me do that, she made me finish the letter. All that was left to write was "Thank you, Jane Doe."

Thankfully, I was able to get on the bus unharmed and not trafficked. I hope she's doing alright and I hope her kids are thriving.