Guardian Angels are Everywhere!

     It all started after my girlfriend and I spent more than a week combing through a 12-state area. We learned there were slim pickings regarding much of a travel-laden, extended Memorial Day weekend.  Due to COVID-19 shutting down nearly all attractions, both indoors and out, we had whittled down our plans to Kansas City. 

     Even then, we were forced to choose among limited time slots offered online at the zoo.  Similar choices existed for Sea Life Aquarium at Crown Center.  There were a good number of hiking options, but the latest forecasts showed heavy rain for nearly all four days!  So, it was down to staying much closer to home with three or four Friday hikes.

     But in the famous words of a Robert Frost poem, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”  And Friday’s hiking extravaganza never quite materialized.

     We arrived at Pickle Springs Natural Area at 9:35 a.m.  I unknowingly passed the first small parking area of the 77-mile drive, and turned into the adjacent one.  Luckily, it was a lot larger and deeper because within 20 feet of entering that lot and attempting to turn right into a parking space, my car briefly sputtered and died.  I tried to restart it.  But even though it more than sputtered, the car did everything but turn over.

     Since I just had a new battery installed within the last two months, I knew it wasn’t that.  But after paging through the 200-page-plus owner’s manual, we had no idea why this vehicle, with just over 45,000 miles, decided to shut down.

     At that time, Pickle Springs was set to be our first of four or five scheduled stops for the day.  There was just one other car and it was on the first lot.  Within a half hour, a half dozen more cars arrived.  I asked just about everyone if they could perhaps observe one of my attempts of starting the car and help diagnose the problem.  But everyone refused to even listen.

     That was both before and after we called a company to try and arrange a tow of the car to a service station somewhere close to Farmington.  We were told that tow truck drivers could try to jump start and tow vehicles, and could request to diagnose the problem, but could not guarantee it. We were also told there were probably no places open in Farmington that could actually fix my car during this Memorial Day weekend.

     Also, a tow truck driver could try and jumpstart my car, but if we drove it again, it could have died out again around there or even on the highway.  In addition to having to be towed again, that could be extremely dangerous.

     The kicker was that it was company policy merely to tow the vehicle, but not take any passengers due to the fairly recent corona virus.  So, we went back and forth with that company. 

     Meanwhile, I spoke to the owner of my long-time service station, whose shop is a couple miles from my house and 90 miles from here.  He said to bring my car there, as they were open until 5 p.m. 

     But there was one other problem.  How would we get back to that location?  We were wondering how much it would cost for an Uber to pick us up and drive us that far or if we even knew anyone we could call who would be willing to drive down there to pick us up.

     In the interim, I approached several people among another 10 cars that pulled into the two parking lots.  Finally, a young man and his wife, plus their two young children not only listened to my car, but showed sympathy throughout the episode.  Ironically, they lived just a mile on the other side of the same service station.

     That’s when our guardian angel stepped in.  We received a call from a man at an area tow truck company who said that, even with the COVID-19 scare, he would let us ride in his truck and take us back with the towed vehicle to our St. Louis area station. He said that helping others any way he could was his personal mantra.

    

     While we rode in the vehicle, we learned a great deal about the driver.  The first thing was that, he didn’t expect to be in the business very long, but once again, he enjoyed going the extra mile (no pun intended) to help others.  In the drive of some 90-100 minutes, he gave several details of that lifestyle in both his personal and professional life.

     The driver described his personal life of being born in Florida from a broken home and living in a foster home at the age of 11.  That’s when his father had passed away, but not before he taught and indoctrinated into his son the value of hard work and helping others.  Ironically, I was wearing a shirt this day that had Florida cities and attractions all over it!

     Although he was putting in countless hours and miles sometimes driving people as much as a couple hundred miles or more, he started his own physical location business recently. It’s also in a field that helps others. 

     Our driver said the part he likes least about being in business is dealing with money matters.  He said he hates money!  He also mentioned how, in his view, it’s strange how so many young people nowadays don’t possess a very good work ethic.  On that note, he described a very low-key manual labor position that paid $36/hour for a 40-hour job, but all the company found was one young man who lasted just two days.

     While all these stories unraveled and all three of us spoke about various aspects of today’s world, I mentioned he was like our Clarence, the guardian angel from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

     The driver just laughed and reiterated, “If I can help people, I will.  That’s the most important thing.”

     As the driver pulled out of the service station parking lot in the St. Louis area, I noticed a large ‘In God We Trust’ sticker on the back of the truck window.  When he turned onto the main street, we waved goodbye.  The honking of the truck horn could easily have been mistaken for the sound of bells.  This driver definitely earned his wings with us!