Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I Saved A Life By Shoveling
.................................................By A Friend • January 21, 2019

My neighbor is a paramedic, him and his wife are some of the nicest people I have ever met. A few years back we started this sort of "favour war" where one of us would do something for the other, such as shovel their driveway or help them build a shed, and next time the other would try to top it with another favour. Yesterday morning there was maybe 2 or 3 feet of snow on the ground (we live in a northern Ontario town so this is typical) and I remembered he shovelled my driveway for me last snowfall. So I bust out my shovel and take care of both our sidewalks and driveways because it was my turn to do a favour back. It takes a while but I finish and get into my car for work. What I didn't realize was that he had to work that day too.

Fast forward to this morning I get a knock on my door, it's him. He immediately shakes my hand and informs me that because I shovelled his driveway and sidewalk for him, he was able to get to work earlier. As soon as he started his shift a call came through that a young boy was in a medical emergency. Lucky his partner and him were only about 2 minutes away, but the next closest ambulance? 10 minutes. This kid did not have 10 minutes, he barley had 2 minutes. Because my neighbor got to work sooner a young boy gets to live his life.

This isn't a humble brag, this is to inform others that even the smallest favours can have the biggest impacts. It wasn't too much of a hassle to shovel his driveway for him, but because I did a young kid gets to see his family again, go back to school again, talk to his friends again, live his life. No favour is too small. Bless your souls everyone and have a lovely day.