For all its issues and tricky challenges with navigating Facebook's unwieldy transparency and personal data control measures, it can sometimes be used quite meaningfully.
Facebook user Nora Rashidi had over the past week experienced the powers of the social media giant... in, of all things, tracking down a GrabCar driver to express gratitude for his help with her father over the weekend.
You see, her father had boarded a Grab ride she booked for him, for a trip from Bedok to Yishun, when he suffered a heart attack shortly after getting into the car.
It was Mar. 8, some time after 3pm.
Redirected trip to hospital
Realising that Nora's father was not responding, Grab driver Moola Imran Yacoob had taken the man's phone and dialled the last number he had called — which turned out to be Nora's.
Nora told the driver to make his way back to the pick-up point, where her uncle was still nearby, but Moola insisted that he should send Rashidi's father to Changi General Hospital directly, as he believed it would be quicker.
Rejected offer of compensation even though passenger threw up in his car
On the way there, though, Nora's father threw up in the car. When Rashidi's uncle offered Moola S$50 as compensation for the mess caused, the driver declined, saying he was "doing it for God's sake".
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Nora's father eventually recovered from the heart attack, and in an article on The Pride, she said he appealed to her on multiple occasions to try to track down the driver so he could thank him.
Sadly, the man fell ill again and eventually passed away two weeks later.
Nonetheless, Nora wrote a Facebook post on Wednesday, April 4 hoping to fulfil her late father's with and thank the kind soul he had met:
She included a screenshot of Moola's profile in her post:
Happily, two days later, Nora reportedly did hear from Moola's daughter, who had seen the Facebook post — so at least, Nora was able to extend her late father's thanks to the man who helped her father in need.
Top image from Nora Rashidi's Facebook post
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