Sometimes, people are just awesome - a story to help make you happy

[Waterbear]

I’ve gotten so much help here that I wanted to share something nice. This happened to me about 2 years ago. It’s 100% true. It’s the story of My Tow Truck Angel.

I'm from Northern Massachusetts, and the weekend before the 4th, my boyfriend, another friend, and I decided to drive into Boston to see the Tall Ships. I never go into the city, so I was pretty excited.

My friend was driving and we were in the tunnel near Govt Center. Suddenly, the tire completely went. It was like it exploded. For all you people not from Boston, we'd gotten a flat in one of the most dangerous places to get a flat. We were in a tunnel just around a bend with traffic doing about 70+mph. I said, "we need to get out of the car". I thought the car was toast, and I was worried for our safety too. We got out of the car and climb up on the maintenance railings. We were literally clinging to the side of the tunnel to avoid getting run over. My friend is trying to reach AAA, but we're in a tunnel so that's not working out. (It's a pretty long tunnel you see).

Out of nowhere, maybe 5 to 10 minutes have passed, this guy in a huge tow truck pulls up behind us.

To my friend, I said “wow, AAA in Boston is fast!”

She said, “Didn’t get through to AAA”

The man who got out of the town truck was large, bald, filthy, sweaty, and covered in poorly drawn tattoos. He looked like the most terrifying biker, skin-head you’d ever meet. He said “I’m going to get you out!”

Suddenly, two cops show up and divert the traffic. The tow truck guy, in what seemed like no time at all, got my friends car up onto the truck and drove us out of the tunnel. He parked in the closest street, and started to look at the tire.

He determined that the tire was toast and ask for our spare which he deftly put on. My friend was freaking out since she couldn’t afford to pay a guy who wasn’t from AAA. Since it was my idea to go to Boston, I said that I would handle it.

I walked over to this beast of a man, and asked how much I owed him. He looked at me with a stunned expression on his face and said softly, “Oh no, there is no charge for this.” I was shocked and I put out my hand to shake his. He made an embarrassed face and looked from my tiny, clean hand, to his huge, filthy hand. He started to stammer, “you don’t want to shake my…”. I took his hand in my own and gave him a firm handshake. I said “Thank you so much for helping us.” He smiled and said, “you’re welcome.”

I’m not very religious but I think that I might know who my guardian angel is.

Hope this brightened your day!

 

[njoy]

Great story, waterbear. I'll add one:

My husband and I (and 2 kids, a dog and 2 parrots) were driving along the "main" highway in Belize. This was 1975 and believe me when I say this road would have been unacceptable as a bad logging road in northern Canada. It was awful; very narrow; and pure, slick jungle mud. Then a Mexican oil truck forced us deep into a mangrove swamp. Turns out the less "macho" driver has to stop to negotiate a pass and it wasn't going to that truck driver!

So here we were half upside down in a ditch. First, a guy from Texas came by and introduced his partner who was from up near us in Canada. Small world! They killed the snake in the back of their truck and we piled in while they pulled our car and tent trailer out of the ditch.

Soon, we were on our way but then the tent trailer fell off. The hitch was broken. Now what? We looked off down the road and saw a huge black man walking rapidly toward us. He was swinging a truly gigantic hammer and looked like a man on a serious mission.

I wanted to run for it but my husband walked towards him and said, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a great big nail to go with that great big hammer, would ya?"

"Sure, mon" he said and hauled out a huge nail, easily a foot long. No, he didn't want money for it and off he went down the road, whistling and swinging his hammer.

My husband (clever guy) used the nail to fix the hitch and off we went for another half hour (maybe a mile or two, given the conditions) down the slippery road, through the jungle.

Then the tent trailer fell off again. The nail was lost in the deep mud and irretrievable. What next?

We looked around and saw a tiny hut in the distance. An elderly black man sat watching us. My husband slogged over to him and discovered he had a big wound on his leg and couldn't walk.

Soon they had negotiated a deal. This man would store our tent trailer on his property "safe and sound" he assured us and, in return, we would pay him the $ 2 he needed to take his leg to the doctor.

So we continued on to Belize City (where everyone was impressed that we'd made the 40 mile trip in only 4 hours) and, a few days later, returned for the tent trailer, "safe and sound" and our benefactor with his leg neatly bandaged.

Four beautiful "angels" in unexpected disguise.

I hear the road is a lot better these days but the one we travelled was unforgettable.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Two great stories of kindness to strangers.
There is hope in this often selfish world after all.

I was in a supermarket and bought more than I could pay for
so I asked the checkout girl to put aside the items I couldn't afford.
I paid for what I absolutely needed and left the store with it.

While putting the groceries in the trunk of my car, a total stranger
approached me. She was Hispanic, I thought. She handed me a
$20 bill and said I could use it to buy the groceries I had left in the store.
She had been in the checkout line and observed my financial dilemma.

I thanked her, shook her hand up and down, and went back and
paid for the groceries I had left.

The generous young stranger did not look like she was wealthy.
She just had a big heart.