Having just picked up my youngest daughter from LAX to join my wife and I and our oldest daughter and her husband for the Thanksgiving weekend, we have plenty to be thankful for.
But I was reminded late this afternoon about other little things for which I am grateful: good neighbors, good people in the community, trusting strangers not afraid to ask for help when they need it; and mostly for the good feeling when one experiences the positive impact of what some people call good karma, all of which came together today.
by Scott Hettrick
Shortly before 4 p.m. a young lady came and rang my doorbell. She pointed to her older model Toyota across the street and asked if I could help her change her left rear tire that had clearly gone flat. She did not have AAA or any roadside emergency car insurance. I haven’t changed a tire in decades but thought I’d give it a shot — I’m a little bit old-school so, admittedly, my masculinity and ego were on the line (at least in my own mind). She didn’t know if she had a jack or if the spare tire had enough air in it. Turns out the spare was a little low on air but good enough for a temporary fix, but she had no jack. I went to the trunk of my car and found a jack and got it all set up under her car and ready to hoist. But when I tried to use her small wrench to slightly loosen the lug nuts before raising the car, I could not even begin to loosen a single one of them — they had obviously been put on with one of those wrenches powered by an air compressor. And the little wrench did not allow me to get much leverage — I needed one of those tire irons in the shape of a cross but neither of us had one (these were all my excuses, anyway — couldn’t possibly be that I just wasn’t strong enough, right?).
As it was going to be dark soon, I decided to use our AAA account to call for a tow truck to change her tire. While awaiting the truck, which came very quickly, as always, I learned that the young lady’s name was Tina and that she is a recent graduate of UCLA where she studied psychology. She just started a job a month ago where she drives to the homes of people with autistic children and helps them with their behavioral and social development. This flat tire delay had already caused her to miss a client where she had a two-hour appointment, and her next appointment was scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Judging by the age and condition of her car and her lack of roadside emergency insurance, I was guessing she had little money. Her family lives in San Jose, she said, so she had no one to call to help in these situations. She had initially pulled over about a block earlier and had begun knocking on doors. She tried a few with no luck — people either not home or unable or unwilling to help. She returned to her car and limped it along on the now-shredding tire a little further and tried another group of houses with no luck and repeated the process a few times. So she was very grateful I agreed to help. But that may have only happened because Tina told me that our neighbor across the street recommended she try my house. Carol knew I was home and would likely offer assistance. It’s for just this sort of thing that I am thankful we know most of our neighbors pretty well, and thankful my wife Betty organizes a block party every summer so we can all watch out for each other. I don’t know that I would recommend that a young woman go door-to-door in a strange neighborhood with a disabled car, but it was refreshing in this day and age that she was not too paranoid and fearful to ask for help in the old-fashioned way and that she was optimistic, no matter how naively, that someone would actually help her change her tire. Surely at some point in her life the realities of this modern world will sink in — I didn’t want to be the one to crush that spirit or sense of belief that most people are willing to help others spontaneously just yet.
The tow truck man filled her spare tire with a little more air and had her tire changed quickly by about 4:55 (well, sure, it was easy for him with the proper tool — a much bigger tire iron that allowed him the proper amount of leverage and more torque — I’m sure his youth and obvious bigger arms were not a factor). That’s when Tina asked me if it was safe to drive on the small little spare tire. I told her not more than about 40 miles and not very fast — best to stay off freeways (the tow truck man had to correct me a little and say that it might be alright for 50 miles – big diff!). Tina looked worried and said that in addition to her appointment in 90-minutes in Pasadena, she had another appointment the next morning in Diamond Bar. Did I know anywhere she could get a new tire tonight, and inexpensively?
I quickly called our favorite mechanic about a mile from our house, Mike, owner of Arcadia Tires. Mike has often declined to charge us for minor repairs and often told us we only needed way less expensive repairs than we told him we expected and would have paid for. As a result, we have sent many customers to Mike. This time I told him I knew he was closing in a couple minutes at 5 p.m. but could he please hang around long enough to help Tina whom I would direct right away to his shop on Duarte Road just east of Santa Anita Avenue to get a new tire put on her car. He didn’t hesitate. “Sure Scott, send her up here and we’ll wait and take care of her.”
As the very responsive, friendly, and helpful AAA tow truck driver pulled away, Tina, who has decided to begin her career by helping autistic children, got in her car to drive to see Mike the conscientious mechanic, who was immediately willing to stay open after hours to wait to help a young woman he never met simply because one of his customers asked for a favor to help a stranger I had only met an hour earlier.
As I drove to pick up my daughter at LAX, I had goose bumps thinking about the chain of goodness and kindnesses that just happened. Shouldn’t it always be this way? It was this way today, and for that I am thankful.
— By Scott Hettrick