With all this depressing news lately, ranging from the heartbreaking like typhoons wiping out the Philippines, to just bizarre and embarrassing like Rob Ford, mayor of the Big Smoke caught inwell, his own big smoke, it's always nice to see a little pick-me-up happen right in front of your eyes.
I'll admit, I'm a complete, weepy softie, who chokes up writing half the articles I do for the Journal, blubbers like a baby at Folgers coffee commercials, or that one Tim Hortons commercial featuring a dad getting up at the crack of dawn to take his son to hockey practice and as he's sitting admiring the little tyke skate on the ice, he's sipping a Timmies coffee.
Gets me every time.
But sometimes, let's face it, we get confronted with crappier situations on a daily basis.
Some wiener not holding the door open for you when you have your hands full, a person being abrupt and rude on the other end of the line when you call them looking for help with something, or just other frustrating scenarios where you just want to scream until your eyeballs pop out of your sockets.
Ok, I digress.
I was pulling into a parking space at a local grocery store here in town, and I won't name which one but speaking of eyeballs-popping-out-of-sockets scenarios, I'm two seconds away from filling out a comment card on this store because the snow is so high in the parking lot, that it feels like the Iditarod just to get to the entrance doors.
And I don't have to digress because in fact, that exact situation ties into my warm-fuzzies moment.
As I'm pulling in, I see this elderly lady leaving the store, pushing with all her might her grocery cart full of items.
However, the snow is so high that her cart is hardly making it through the hills, wheels just spinning and spinning but not moving anywhere.
Before I can get out, I see this car pull up and a nice man leans out his window to speak with her.
I was close enough that I heard the conversation.
"Need a help there, ma'am?" he asked.
"Oh, yes. That'd be very nice. This snow is just too much," she replied, clearly relieved that this gentleman had rescued her from the apparent Arctic tundra that is this supermarket parking lot.
The man gets out, takes her cart and tells her to "wait right there."
He then pushes the thing, struggling but not nearly as much as she was, through the barrels of snow to her car, before running back and getting her to escort her back to the car.
"What a treat!" she joked.
Of course, showing what a true Good Samaritan he is, he helps the lady into her car and loads the groceries into the trunk for her.
He was even careful with her eggs, which she pointed out were in one of the bags.
"I see 'em, don't worry. They're good," he smiled and replied.
He continued to move the bags into the back.
"Well this isn't something you see every day!" she said in clear gratitude.
No ma'am, it certainly isn't.
I just sat in my driver's seat watching it all, blotting my eyes with Kleenex.
Someone must have been cutting onions in my car again.
CM
