In the wide open spaces of Western Canada, it can be a long way from point A to point B. That’s why nothing quite matches the sinking feeling you get when your car dies somewhere between those two points.
It has happened to many of us, and it happened to Margaret O’Brien of Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask., this summer. In response to an earlier call in this column for stories about Good Samaritans, O’Brien supplied this story.
She and her daughter, Colleen Woods, were driving to Regina so Woods could catch a plane home to Alberta. As luck would have it, the car conked out before they reached the city. They had barely pulled off the highway when a Good Samaritan, who identified himself only as John, pulled over.
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In short order, John had found another two motorists willing to take Woods to the airport, called a tow truck and told O’Brien about a reliable repair shop in Regina.
Neither John nor the two women who chauffeured Woods would accept any payment for their kindness, O’Brien reports.
She and her daughter had the chance to do their own good turn awhile ago. Once again, O’Brien and Woods were driving, this time in Alberta, when they saw a woman and two children walking down the road. They stopped, offered assistance, took the family to a garage, got some gas and returned them to their car.
It’s certainly a good example of the golden rule in action.
Donald Toms supplied another story about Good Samaritans. He says quite a few of them work on the Amaranth Gazette, a monthly non-profit newsletter published in Amaranth, Man.
The gazette started in the mid-’80s as a school newsletter but expanded to a wider audience. Now it has about 300 subscribers. Toms, who handles the subscriber list, sends copies to someone in every province and five states.
Material is contributed by volunteers, and volunteers also type all the news for the gazette – anything from obituaries and recipes to community news and poetry.
Toms says there have been many volunteer typists and contributors over the years, all of them Good Samaritans.
Thanks to those who have told us their stories about good deeds. If we get a steady flow of them, the Producer may create a continuing feature to remind us all that Good Samaritans are out there, quietly doing their work.
