I was driving home from work and was queued up on the entrance ramp to the freeway, when I saw a car pulled off to the side - smoke pouring out from under the hood. A man, with a very pregnant wife and small girl were standing nearby looking extremely distraught.
I pulled over and offered my cell phone so the man could call a towing service. While he was making calls, I found out that they were on their way to the airport to pick up the wife's mom, who was flying in from Europe.
The wife had a bad cold AND was crying because they were obviously not going to be able to meet her mom on time and they had no way of letting her know what was going on.
I had no schedule to meet and the airport was on my way home so it seemed like a no-brainer to load mother and daughter into my car and drop them off at the airport. The Dad stayed with the car to wait for the tow truck and off we went. They got to the airport in time to meet the plane without any problems.
A week later I got a note from the family, thanking me for changing what was going to be a disaster into essentially a non-event for them. She wrote that she had told her daughter they had seen an angel at work.
Sometime later, I shared this story with a friend. Within a few weeks, when she saw a young woman walking along the freeway late at night, she was prompted by my experience to stop and help her. And again, she was rewarded with gratitude.
