Mixed Nuts from Israel

I flew to Los Angles on Tuesday morning, making my way into the city of angels to be a part of a client appreciation party for my LA office. I land about 2 hours before my boss and counterpart from our San Francisco stations so I grab a bite to eat and then head over across the airport to the United terminal where I wait for them to land. As I get over there and sit down I see this tiny, wrinkled old man standing by the curb looking around, then at this piece of paper in his hand, then around some more. He was obviously very confused, and very lost. I felt bad for him. So I walk up to him and asked him if he was lost, or he needed any help. He looked at me adn said a few words in some language I didnt recognize, and held otu a small sheet of paper with a list of phone numbers written on it. He pointed at one, and said "Yo-seeef" point point point "Yo-sif" then points at himself "dad" points back at that paper "yosif" I say do you need to use my phone, and pull it out of my pocket. He smiles and I dial the number he is pointing at and hand him the phone. He thinks the person he is calling is already on there, and immediately starts talking, then realizes it is still ringing. He stands there for a moment, then lights up when the other end picks up, and speaks with them in a language I still cannot recognize. He hands me the phone when he is finished and is obviously very happy. I walk back to the bench seats, pull out my book and sit down to read a bit. He looks over at me adn gives me these two thumbs up, and has a huge smile on his face. He stands there, looking at every car as it is pulling up, and is obviosly very anxious for his son to show up. He walks over to the large windows, and fixes his tie, and pulls out his little cap adn puts it on the top of his head. I recognize it as a jewish type of hat, I'm not sure what it is called. He then comes over and sits next to me, and just hangs out while I read. After a minute, he gets up, walks over to his bag, adn returns with a bag of mixed nuts, and offers me some. I accept, and take a few, and he shakes his head no no no, and continues to pour a hand full of them into my cupped hands. He smiles big, and I thank him, and he walks back to his bag and puts them away. When he returns, we wait, and wait, adn wait. Each time a car pulls up, he is looking inside the windows, or his eyes light up a bit, but it is never his son. I begin to worry, adn wonder what the deal is. So I try to figuer out what language he is speaking, and am guessing in my head that it is hebrew adn he is jewish based on teh little round hat on his head. After a very short exchange of words it is figured out that he is from "Israeli" and so I call my friend Michael who is jewish adn speaks fluent Hebrew. Michael agress to takl to the old man. They speak, I get the translation, and my guessing was correct. The old guy is just chilling waiting for his son who should be there any minute. My colleagues showed up, and I was off, but I wantd to make sure that he was ok before I left, and whether he needed to use my phone again. He smiled big, his face all wrinkled and his teeth stained, but he was obviously grateful for helping him to feel a bit less lost, and a little comforted. I walked away, a bit worried because his son had still not arrived, and it had been over 40 minutes, but felt alright about my good deed for the day. It was nice to eat some mixed nuts from Israel, and interact with an obviosuly anxious father (and probably grandfather) who was happy and excited to be in the US to spend his holiday with his family. I'll never forget how proud he was when he walked up to the window, adjusted his tie and put on his cap and straightened himself out so he could look his best when his son arrived.
It was the beginning of my holiday season.
MT