By Jeff Bomben
Your car breaks down in the middle of the busy intersection. You are trapped. Cars continue to race by, the drivers honking their displeasure, when suddenly one person comes out of nowhere to save the day.
In my case, I remember a chilly fall afternoon when a stranger took the time to help me.
On a recent breezy sunny afternoon I was heading out with one of my good friends, driving down Highland Hills Road, right across the street from Angel’s Diner, when our truck suddenly stalled as we were trying to turn. It was a very frightening incident and we didn’t know what to do.
We had to turn off the truck in the middle of the busy intersection while heavy traffic raced by. This caused a stir, with many people honking their horns and a few people using the middle finger.
My friend instructed me to try to push the truck when the light changed to green, but first I had to angle the truck.
I pushed and successfully angled it but then the light changed. Cars started flying by me and I had to race back into the truck.
We waited patiently for the light to turn green again, and then the rush was on once more. I quickly ran out to push the truck through the light.
I was struggling to push it by myself while my friend steered. I started to lose faith that we could get ourselves out of this situation. Out of nowhere, a stranger decided to pull into a nearby parking lot and came over to assist us. He was a middle-aged man who was wearing a tracksuit, and with his help, we were able to move the truck through the busy intersection without anyone getting harmed.
After the man and I moved the truck into a small parking lot, he wanted to help fix the problem with the vehicle. So we opened up the hood and he determined the trouble within a few minutes. He indicated the truck needed oil, so he went back to his car to get some.
Once he put a little bit of oil in it, I started the truck and it ran like new.
We thanked the stranger and offered to buy him something from Tim Hortons. His response was that he was just in the right place at the right time and he did not need any gifts for being a “good person.”
I never got the name of this person and since that day, I have always wondered who he was.
I had never seen the man before and I have not seen him since.
What you should ask yourself is, would you be one of the people who honked or would you get out to help a stranger.
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