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Mumtaz Champsi (MC): We met at 12:30pm, and I don’t know what time it is now but it couldn’t be much beyond 1 o’clock. Right? We’ve known each other about a half an hour.

Tennille Moore (TM): And I didn’t plan on doing this. We just so happen to walk in here.

Kamilah Kashanie (KK): It’s the StoryCorps podcast from NPR, I’m Kamilah Kashanie.

Typically, people come to StoryCorps with a loved one, or at least someone that they know. But this week, we’ll hear how a moment between two strangers led them into the booth.

Mary Bess Ser (MB): They just started to tell the story of what had happened. And in doing so, Tennille, like her full story came out.

KK: Ok, so we’re gonna start with the person at the center of this story, Tennille Moore. She was born and raised in Chicago. And from an early age, she dealt with some pretty serious health issues.

TM: When I first realized that I was sick, I was in 8th grade. My cousin was like, “Something is wrong with Tennille.” I was just, like, staring off into space. By the time we got to the emergency room, I couldn’t walk. The blood vessels burst in my head. So I had to have a brain surgery. Then, I found out that my kidneys was going out. 

The first transplant was from my uncle. Then the second one was from my mother. It rejected. Now I’m on dialysis again. I also had an artificial heart valve. So I had open heart surgery. Then I had a stroke.

And now, well, I’m here now. And I just thank God that I’m here. 

KK: Tennille’s been on dialysis for more than 20 years. And while she was dealing with all of it, her family was there to support her, especially her cousin.

TM: My mother and his mother were best friends. You know, they were pregnant at the same time, so we were around each other all the time. We always laughed together. Of course he had a little street in him. And he was a husband and a father. His name was Edward Tolbert.  

KK: Tennille and Ed ended up spending a lot more time together as they grew up. Not just because their moms were best friends, but because they both were dealing with kidney failure, and eventually went to the same dialysis center.

As they got older, Ed’s health got worse, and he ended up in a coma. Tennille was studying at Harold Washington College at the time.

TM: Today, I just got news that my cousin who was in a coma just passed. I tried to stay in school and I tried to do my quiz, but couldn’t help but to cry in the bathroom.

KK: That moment when Tennille lost her companion, is when she needed one the most. That’s when a stranger, Mumtaz Champsi, stepped in. 

MC: I was standing in the hallway and a young girl came running up and said, ‘there’s a very upset young lady in the bathroom and we can’t get through to her’. So I walked into the bathroom and you were definitely upset and you were wiping your eyes and your nose, and we talked a little bit. 

TM: I initially thought that you were a counselor, but you were another student. The only thing that I can remember thinking was, ‘She’s nice, and, my cousin is gone’.

MC: My father had always said that when someone is feeling upset or angry there are some things you can do, like take a walk. So I said, Let’s take a walk. 

KK: And that’s exactly what they did. They walked out of the bathroom together, left the school, and kept walking until they came across the StoryCorps Chicago booth. Facilitator Mary Bess Ser was working that day.

MB: They just sort of wandered in and it was very clear that they were in the middle of a moment, but I didn’t know that they didn’t know each other.

MC: So we stepped in and looked around and I thought we could make an appointment for you to come back with your mom or someone else to talk about your cousin. 

TM: Mm hmm. 

MB: But then I, you know, I just said, well, you know, we had a cancellation. If you want to do an interview now, we can go right in. 

MC: And I’m like, what? ‘No, no, no, no’. And you looked so expecting at me. It’s like when you see the wave, you have to catch it if you’re a surfer. So I have to admit I was nervous. And Mary Bess, she guided us. She gave us lots of tissues and water. 

KK: Tennille had just got this news about her cousin, so when they recorded, she was processing her loss in real time.

MC: How old was he? 

TM: He was my age. I just get scared when I think about my future because, like, it could have been me, but I’m not ready to die. Because I’ve been going to dialysis for so long. I outlived a lot of people. I could tell when they giving up, so I told him, I said, ‘I know you’re not giving up’. I know that I get tired, I get depressed. But I know I want to live. 

MC: Maybe it’s not a conscious decision, they might not have had the strength. I don’t think they woke up one morning to say, ‘Oh, I want to die’. I think what they did was they said, ‘I’m too tired to go to the hospital. Oh, I’m too tired to pick up the phone’. Sometimes they know better than we do, right? Because it’s them. 

We have a word in Hindi or Urdu called Humsafar. It means fellow traveler. And they use it for people who you share your life with. And here you have somebody who has been traveling on the same road with you who understood what you were going through. You will miss him probably as a companion forever. But right now, all you’re doing is managing, right? That’s all you can do is manage. Put one foot before the other. 

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KK: Here’s facilitator Mary Bess again.

MB: I’ve facilitated 600 some interviews, and this interview restored my faith in humanity. I have not ever seen someone stop in the middle of their day to take time to comfort someone like that. And they were complete and utter strangers. 

KK: And after these two strangers shared this really intense afternoon together, They said goodbye forever, or at least that’s what they thought.

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MC: I’m happy that you wanted to talk to me again, I wasn’t quite sure —

TM: I was thinking to myself, ‘She probably don’t want to be bothered,’ you know? So, we haven’t seen each other in a long time.

MC: But it feels like we’re old friends, right?

TM: Yeah.

KK: Tennille and Mumtaz got together for a second StoryCorps conversation years later. We’ll hear more from them after a short break. Stay with us.

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KK: After we heard about Mumtaz and Tennille’s story, we wanted to know what happened next. I mean, two complete strangers record together and we had no idea if they stayed in touch or even talked again. It turns out they hadn’t, and they had a bunch of questions for each other when we reunited them.  

TM: I was wondering, did you ever think about me, like, after that day? 

MC: Yeah. My husband was home, and so when I came home, I said, ‘let me tell you what happened today.’ He was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ He was like, totally dumbfounded. He’s always worried that if I talk to people, somebody’s going to hurt me. That’s his thing. He’s like, ‘Don’t talk to strangers. This is America. Be careful. Be careful.’ 

TM: Right? Yeah.

MC: But I thought a lot about you when COVID started. And we had a bunch of surgical masks, not too many, but enough. And I kept thinking I wonder if Tennille needs masks. So, that’s so that was in my mind. And then I kept thinking about you. And like — 

TM: That was so nice. I didn’t think that you even thought about me that much! You know, I would have never thought.

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KK: Mumtaz wanted to know what else had changed, like how Tennille was doing with the loss of her cousin.

MC: I’m sorry I’m speaking from a very old memory, but if I remember correctly, you wanted him to fight harder. 

TM: I did. At the time. I felt like he gave up. And I was hurt and I was mad. But now I think that everybody have a time. And unfortunately, it was his. You know, one day I might feel like I want to give up. That might have been all I could take. So thinking back on that. I wish I wasn’t so mad at him. You know, I just wish that I would have understood more. But I understand now. 

MC: And that was part of your grief. You understand illness and you understand the struggle for life. And I think you’re very brave. I think that you made me see how precious life is, something I hadn’t thought about in a while. 

TM: When I thought about the day that we met, you mentioned that you had children at home and you could have been at home doing anything else, but you walked with me. You know, most people see people in a time of need and they do look away. So I was just wondering, what made you spend so much time with me that day? Because it made my day a lot better.

MC: We’re two people from very different —

TM: — backgrounds.

MC: Yeah. Everything is different about us, right? I live in a different neighborhood. I’m a different religion. I’m Muslim. I’m a different age. When you take all those things into account, there’s a lot of differences. So when you walk up to someone you’re not sure they want to talk to you. But you know you have to try. And if you had said, ‘no, I’m fine, I’m going for a walk myself, goodbye’. I would have let you go. And so I just asked God, I said, ‘just help me do the right thing’. So I didn’t think much. I just wanted to do right by you. 

TM: Yeah. 

MC: It is the job of the people who are around when a sad thing happens or a tragedy happens to step up. And you don’t know it’s your job until it falls in your lap. 

TM: Right. I think so. Since then, I volunteered at my grandmother’s nursing home and it made me feel good, you know, helping people actually make you feel good. And it make the other person feel good. By you helping me, I want to pay it back by helping somebody else. 

MC: I think that’s the nicest thing anybody has ever told me.

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KK: Even though Tennille and Mumtaz have only met each other twice, both times at StoryCorps booths, they still managed to form a really tight bond.

MC: We just shared a very deep spiritual moment like you know, when you go to mosque and you pray on Friday and you shake hands with the people next to you. It just uplifts you when you probably never see them again. 

TM: The day that we recorded, you said something about fellow travelers. 

MC: Yes, I was referring to you and your cousin. It’s used with people who travel the road of life together. You know, I said we’re so different, but we’re not different. We take the same train. We think the same way about a lot of stuff that we hadn’t even known about. So it’s just a reinforcement of how lucky we are to have found each other. Now I realize we’re also fellow travelers. 

TM: I’m just happy that I met you. 

MC: Well, I’m glad I met you, too. 

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KK: That’s all for this episode of the StoryCorps podcast. It was produced by Eleanor Vassili and edited by our executive editor, Jasmyn Morris. Our technical director is Jarrett Floyd. Natsumi Ajisaka is our fact-checker. Special thanks to Mary Bess Ser.

To see what music we used in the episode, go to StoryCorps – dot – org, where you can also check out original artwork by Lyne Lucien. For the StoryCorps podcast, I’m Kamilah Kashanie. Catch you next week.