So. On my way home from the Wed. night meetings at Northwood that I missed cause I was tending to a project at work... I stopped to help out a middle aged lady with a flat tire she'd acquired by hopping a curb and narrowly missing a very firmly planted signal pole, all because of her last second decision to avoid me and my stationary car, waiting on the red light at Hawkins and Judson Rd. Luckily there was no cross traffic in the Northbound Judson lanes. So much could have gone wrong, and I could so easily be telling a much different and hopelessly tragic story.
She pulled in to the Exxon across the street, and a very small part of me thought, "You're both alive, your cars are still mobile, and it's only a flat tire, they can handle it." I decided to check on them... Turns out it was only a her. And it very soon became evident that any amount of assistance would help the situation.
Long story short... While we were waiting at the gas station for her good friend "Ed" to arrive from White Oak, she said something to me that I still, am not sure how to take.
I've had similar things said to me in the past, and maybe it's the fact that it keeps happening, and nothing seems to have changed society at large... enough that a person in their 40's would be so caught off guard by kindness to say "I didn't know [people] like you existed." Hearing that helps me make the decision sooner, next time... but it just gets me down. That no one else in 40+ years of this woman's life, has shown her enough phileo to cause her to place undeserved kindness in any category other than Fairytales, Storybooks, or the Hallmark channel. It was painfully apparent this incident was in no way an isolated typhoon amid a life of calm, still waters. This was high tide in the Bermuda triangle.
On the lighter side, I met Ed. Ed was my 50-ish year old counterpart in this woman's life. He drove from White Oak, just to bring a spare that -might- fit (because she & I couldn't find hers). And together, between his elastic battery-powered head lamp, him finding the Original spare tire and jack, and my itty bitty air pump that was in a little emergency kit my parents sent to me... got her under way after a couple hours, as Ed followed her home.
Lessons learned:
• Be adequately prepared for disasters in other peoples' lives. Automotive or otherwise. [But not too prepared, or you may not get to meet Ed.]
• The jack for a Honda CRV is inside, behind the back seat, in the right rear quarter panel. And when you shut the hatch, take the cover off the Spare Tire that's attached to the outside of the door. [The spare is not located under the mat that covers the secret compartment in the back floorboard, as one might suspect] I had a good laugh at myself when I realized what Ed was up to.
• Some people need more than one nice person in their lives.
• Some people need the person who almost got hit, to be nice enough to hang around with them till Ed can get there.
Oh. She admitted to attending a large church in town that shall remain anonymous. Well, two actually. She's a hair dresser at Cut n Loose, I don't think she'll be any trouble to spot... go be nice to her.
