A stranger's kindness is appreciated - especially when stuck

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

For the second time in about six months, I’ve been saved by a young girl.

In August, I wrote about a recent mission trip to Guatemala, of trying to hike into a village during a rainstorm along narrow, muddy, slick footpaths in fading daylight and feeling lost. Of being prevented from becoming lost by a 10-year-old girl who appeared out of the rain and fog of my glasses to guide me along the path to the house I was seeking.

The girl was Rebecca Ico, granddaughter of Julian Ico. Julian often accompanies us on our trips in the Polochic River Valley and Alta Vera Paz and Baja Vera Paz mountains.

It happened again this past Monday in the aftermath of the weekend’s snowstorms.

Monday evening after leaving a planning commission meeting, I arrived at my street northwest of the Shadle Park shopping center to find the snow deeper than expected. Slipping and sliding along, I promptly got stuck half in and half out of my driveway.

After 20 minutes of digging with two different shovels, and attempting to rock my car free, a neighbor came by and pulled me out with his tow rope. After that nonsense, you’d think I’d just park my car on the street in front of my house and call it good.

I considered it, but felt the snow was too deep, and I didn’t want to begin Tuesday by having to dig myself out again. So, I slipped and slid my way back down my street looking for a good, fairly clear place to park.

About a block away, I turned onto a main street leading to Westview Elementary School — and promptly got stuck again. This time, I was blocking everybody, not just my driveway.

Again, I tried the old forward-reverse rocking method of extraction, which didn’t work. In fact, it got me entrenched further as my front power wheels spun and whirled uselessly on the underlying packed ice and snow.

Just as I was about to wander back to my house to get my shovel, a figure emerged from a nearby home. A small figure that proceeded to raise the garage door up 3-4 feet. A small figure that came down the driveway and walked toward me with a snow shovel in hand.

It was the figure of a young girl, probably Rebecca Ico’s age.

“Do you need some help?” she asked in a slight voice.

At this point in the evening, I could use all the help I could get. She began clearing snow out from under and around my car as I periodically did the old forward-reverse thing, without any luck.

I got out at several points as well to clear more snow than she could from underneath my car (she was afraid to because she didn’t want to scratch my fine Ford Focus factory red paint job). Eventually, with her help and that of a young boy, probably eighth-grade, high school freshman age, who came along and volunteered to push, we got my car free.

I wanted to stop and ask their names as I thanked them through my open window, but the key to success in these situations is momentum — don’t lose it when you’ve got it.

Eventually, after a couple more episodes, I parked my car in a business’s lot about two blocks away, left a note that it wasn’t abandoned, and trudged home — two hours after I first arrived at my driveway.

Since I know where the young girl lives, I intend to follow up with a better thank you than just a slipping and sliding shout and wave. It’s the least I can do to show appreciation for venturing out to help a complete stranger, struggling in the snow.

Some individuals with thinner skin and bigger egos would probably have turned the young girl’s help down, or not mentioned it in public. Not me. Like I said, I’ll take all the help I can get.

And I’m just glad there are still people in this world who, as the saying goes, know how to “Practice random acts of kindness.”

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.