Depending on the kindness of strangers in the midst of a crisis can often be a challenging proposition for people who find themselves in such a situation. Many of those strangers that come into contact with these types of circumstances either don’t have the time to assist anyone or simply choose to ignore the reality of the other person’s problems.
In the case of a 29-year-old single mother of four from Florida named Tawny Nelson, problems with her car on a rainy night caused her to ask more than 20 different people for help. Each of them walked by the woman without even responding to her desperate pleas for help.
The problem had developed when she took her four daughters, ages 9, 5, 2 and six months, to do some grocery shopping at a local Winn Dixie supermarket, approximately nine blocks away from her home. The recent breakup of a personal relationship had coincided with a string of car problems for Nelson. These included a constantly-leaking tire, a worn out alternator belt and a window where the automatic motor to raise and lower it was no longer working.
In the gathering dusk, Nelson placed both the children and her groceries inside her vehicle. After getting inside to start the car, she found that she was unable to get any reaction when she turned her key in the ignition. The reason was that one of her daughters had inadvertently left a light on, which had subsequently drained the car battery. To make matters worse, her cell phone had been disconnected.
Nelson spent the next two hours trying to get anyone to help her, which resulted in complete rejection. With her three youngest girls becoming upset, she also lost control of her emotions at the lowest point in the crisis.
Soon after this, she heard a tap on her car window, with a 74-year-old man handing her a plate from the supermarket’s deli. On it were biscuits and chicken strips, with the man also having purchased some bottled water.
The anonymous man, who had a bad limp and walked with a cane, told Nelson that he had phoned for a tow truck to take her car back to her residence. In addition, he indicated that his wife would soon be arriving to take Nelson and her children home.
The following morning, the elderly man returned with a mechanic and left a short while later. The mechanic then fixed the problem with Nelson’s car window and replaced both the alternator and battery. She then asked what the final bill would be, hoping that she would be able to spread payments over a period time.
The mechanic merely smiled upon hearing Nelson’s request and indicated that the man had paid the entire bill. His only request was that she never lose hope and to continue to show love for her children, which caused her to cry tears of joy.
Realizing that she would never be able to properly thank the man, Nelson stated that she’s committed to doing the same thing for someone else in the future who finds themselves in a similar situation.
The entire tale may never have been told if not for a request from across the country that came through social media. A television anchorman for KTVU in San Francisco, Frank Somerville, had asked to hear about uplifting stories that would offer hope. Somerville had noted his discouragement in having to cover stories about various forms of violence or the heated political campaigns in which both sides used angry rhetoric to make their case.