Thursday, September 5, 2013

Kindness of Strangers - Mark Hoffman

I was enjoying the beautiful day with hubby, late lunch, gorgeous scenery and then we returned home to feed the chickens and decided to split up for a while.  I was headed to Christmas Tree Shop and he was going to hang out with a friend.  I leave the Lodge after dropping off something, and head towards the highway to suddenly hear a plop plop plop sound.  Turn down the radio, slow down, speed up, still hear the sound.  I pull off a busy road into a parking lot of a business closed for the day to find that I have a completely flat tire.  I checked that tire before getting into the car not even 10 minutes before, nothing in my driveway and then I remembered hearing a small popping sound when I pulled into the Elks Lodge parking lot.  Well, that's when it must have happened and within minutes my tire was flat.  I call Paulie and his cell goes to voice mail so I do what any resourceful girl would do - 'pull' up my sleeves, get the car manual and get all the pieces needed to take the tire off and put a spare on.  Where I was pulled off the road there is a healthy amount of traffic of people going home from work for the day.  I read the manual, find the jack, pop off the hub cap, put the crow bar on to loosen then nuts before jacking up the card to find them rusted on to the tire (surely because it has not been removed for several years).  I have sandals on so it's not a good idea to try stepping on the bar to put pressure on in case is slips and I pop off a toe instead.  Meanwhile, traffic is passing by, slowing down but not stopping.  I have to admit that I got very discouraged in humanity and even shed a tear or two.  Just then a well dressed man pulled over and asked if I needed any help.  At this point I must have looked pretty miserable and accepted a hand without hesitation.  Without missing a beat, he shed his suit jacket and dropped on the ground to loosen the lug nuts, and I cranked up the jack.  I was so sure that I would have to end up driving home on a flat tire, in the dark through discouraged tears but instead I had the spare on just as my husband pulled up to us.  A HUGE thank you to Mark Hoffman, father of the farmer John Hoffman that we have been shopping at for over a decade.  I shared the sunflower field and his stand in one of my Vlogust videos.  I am well aware that if I was an attractive, trim girl, many would have come to my aide.  That made me sad enough to shed a few more tears when I returned home before coming into the house.

6 comments:

  1. I felt really sad reading this but please don't shed any more tears about it. Perhaps no one stopped because they thought you had it under control - only very small minded people would have taken into account the way you look. From what I see of your videos you are a very smart, intelligent, friendly and caring person and that is what counts.

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    1. Thank you, I felt instantly better getting it out of my system by writing this post. I don't let things fester and always try to believe the best in people. Mark saved my momentary disgust in human nature of having blinders one. His good Karma will be returning because of his kindness.
      :) Natasha

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  2. So thankful that Mark came along!
    True--you might have looked too efficient. I don't think I would have got past opening the trunk. I don't know if I could even get the hubcap off--LOL! Sad, but true.

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    1. LOL, maybe that's what it was - me with crow bar in hand, tire jack out and manual open I can see how that could have been confused for being all set. Lucky for me Mark saw otherwise and helped me.
      :) Natasha

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  3. This made me sad. People just don't want to take a minute out of their day. It could have been anybody and they still wouldn't have stopped. Take care.

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    1. If anything all those who just kept going after seeing me struggle with the tire jack, made me appreciate Mark's kind gesture.
      :) Natasha

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