Louise to the rescue!

 

 

There are good people in the world. I know it seems as if a bunch of crazy apes are now running the world on the basis of who is the most dominant. But down here where the rest of us live there are so many beautiful and humble humans who make our little backwater a very happy place. 

The kind everyday greetings and chat, the support amongst families and neighbours, the caring of our very young and the oldest in our communities and those who work in ordinary everyday jobs and keep the good side out. 

But every so often you meet an exceptional circumstance and an exceptional human to boot. From now on I will celebrate each and every one! It’s not that kindness is rare, maybe it’s just that it doesn’t make as much noise in the media as all the aggression and hatred. So here is just one example of the small things that restore our faith in each other.

My car broke down. It’s an old yoke, maybe on its last legs but for some reason one day it decided to stall on a very steep narrow hill in a very public place. Not only that, this was on the Friday of the St. Patrick’s Day Bank Holiday and it happened during a panic buying rush when it seemed as if half the town was shopping. 

I had done my own shopping in jig time and was coming back up the steep hill from the very busy supermarket. The more I tried to start the car the more lights on the dashboard flashed. Handbrake, engine and oil lights were all flashing dangerously. The car just flopped on the spot and with my foot on the brake and the steering locked, I couldn’t move one way or the other. 

Terrified to get out of the car in case it rolled back into the line of traffic behind me, I just didn’t know what to do so I rang my husband as you do! He immediately went into action and contacted the AA. 

Now I’m not a shrinking violet but to say I was a mortified woman stuck on this hill would be an understatement. I was dying!!! Cars began to overtake me as other cars came flying down the hill towards them. I put my head in my hands waiting for a smash. A few gave daggers looks as they passed and one or two shook their heads and smiled benevolently. 

Then my angel arrived. She overtook me, looked at me with pity, stopped in front of me and put on hazard lights. She then ran back to me, “Are you OK? What has happened?” 

This was the start of a complete stranger coming to my rescue. The car was now banjaxed and I was afraid to get out. This woman insisted on standing by my side, leaning in to talk me down and redirecting traffic telling drivers that I had broken down. 

She stood there for an hour even in the drizzling rain, even when frustrated motorists revved their engines and glared angrily at us as if we were parked there for a friendly chat! Each time a car had to either overtake me or pass her standing in the middle of the hill, she became so vulnerable to their driving skills or lack of! 

In between me putting my head in my hands and contacting my family again to come to my rescue, she chatted away about the price of eggs and this and that, made me laugh and constantly reassured me that all would be grand so not to worry.

Of course I worried away and she chatted to me about herself and her family and asked me about mine. For about an hour she stood there and we had a very surreal conversation between two total strangers on that very busy hill. 

Not only did she insist on staying, I would say to her every so often, “Listen it’s fine if you need to go. Please go. You’ve been brilliant. Help is on the way!”

But Louise, as I found out was her name, just wouldn’t leave me! This was even though I discovered that she was about to board a bus to Dublin Airport to catch a flight to the UK!! Eventually the help came and Louise hugged me in through the window of the car where I was still sitting with my foot on the brake! 

Afterwards I kept wondering, who was she, what was it that made her stop, and how did she decide to stay even though she was checking her watch wondering about her Dublin Airport trip? I had one little piece of information which was a small hint of where she might be working. I called in there during the following few days but they didn’t know her and I hit a dead end.

So if you know a blonde angel called Louise maybe you could let her know that I’m looking to thank her again for being an exceptionally kind person. We were all so busy that day. To be honest I was on my way home to cook for a gang who were coming to stay and I’m not at all sure that I would have done what she did if it was the other way around?  Would you?

 

First published in the Waterford News and Star