The Kindness (and Ingenuity) of Strangers

    It was a gorgeous day. I was dressed in some of the new digs I bought in March from Banana Republic and I was sporting my new 'do. I looked good honey!
    I was on my way to an assignment for my job and I was singing and driving, grateful to God that I was working out some financial issues and just trusting Him to help me and my fiance with some other big doings.

    Then my car rolled into a ditch.

    All I could think was "I'll have to empty my emergency savings to pay for an insurance deductible. It's going to RUIN my plans. Then, I am going to die."

    I had driven past the location of my appointment and pulled into an elementary school's gravel driveway to turn around. I put the car in reverse, but it started rolling back and then went into the ditch. I heard a hideous crunch and slammed on the brakes. I put on the emergency brake and turned the car off.
    I got out of the car to find three wheels suspended in midair. The car's butt rested on the grass. The underside of the front bumper was lying on a concrete drain. If it had rolled back any further, the car could have flipped completely onto the passenger side.
    I stood there in disbelief. Then I made the dreaded call to my insurance company. I was hoping all I needed was a tow truck, covered under emergency road side assistance. But if there was any damage, I would have to wait to be taken to a garage and get a rental car AND THEN cough up $1,000 for the deductible to fix it.
    An hour and a half -- that's how long I would have had to wait for a towing company contracted with my insurance company. I had to stand there, late for my appointment, losing precious time I needed for multiple assignments at my job and baking in the hot sun.
    Mind you, I was in a little town in the middle of nowhere. An old man with a beer belly sat in a chair across the street in front of his apartment just watching me.
    A police officer came by and offered to call "Jimmy," the best he "ever seen getting these here cars outta ditches." Fine, call Jimmy. Just a side note -- the officer's name was Jimmy too.
    Jimmy arrived with a name patch stitched to his shirt. He brought along a tattooed gentleman with a ZZ Top beard, a trucker's hat and sleeveless shirt. They marveled at my car's bizarre position. "How in the world did you get the back tire over there but the front tire stuck up there?" Heck if I knew. Jimmy, Jimmy and the bearded guy talked about it for some time while walking around it, looking under it and scratching their heads, looking at me like "How did this gal manage to do this?"
    The whole time, I was laughing. Not because it was funny, but because I was at the end of my rope. Too much crap had been happening to me lately... it could have been worse of course -- but this would have taken it real far into worse.

    I thought "God, I am not going to flip out, because this officer is going to have to lock me up. I don't have any more worry left in me. I'm not shedding another tear. I already decided that I'm going to relax and trust you no matter what."

    Jimmy and his colleague left to get some wood blocks. What for? Well, if they just yanked my car out of the ditch, they would have destroyed the undercarriage and maybe pulled off a bumper. So, these geniuses -- and I mean that sincerely -- built a little bridge of sorts out of wood blocks under my car, hiked it up with a jack and just backed out of the ditch nice and easy.

    It was amazing.

    Not a scratch... except for the dirt and grass wedged into one of the exhaust pipes and some scratches on the back bumper -- that was the nasty crunch I heard. The tattooed man scraped the dirt out with a screwdriver. I drove off without a rattle, squeal, knock or groan.
    I paid Jimmy $125 -- far less than a $1,000 deductible -- and all I have to do is send in the receipt to my insurance to be reimbursed.
    I got to my appointment, drove back to the office with no trouble and finished my work.

    And now, I can laugh about the whole thing.

    DH

Comments

[Sense]

Ah, one of the good things about the South that I miss. In the bigger cities, no way would this have happened.

Once when I was just learning to drive i reached over for a pack of gum on my passenger seat (i know, i know) and ended up with the two passenger side wheels in a ditch, the other two lazily spinning in the air. It was night. I was alone on a country road. I didn't own a cell phone (it was 1996).

The next passerby was a tow truck driver going home from work. He pulled me out in 5 seconds and didn't charge me a dime, saying if it were his kid he would want someone to do the same for them.

Later on, i find out he knows my best friends' family! crazy.

God was surely looking out for you. Maybe this was his way of testing your patience and faith a little. It seems like just when everything is going wrong, something happens to make you thankful that it isn't worse. :) Coincidence?

Hang in there.

[HC]

That's great. I'm so glad you and the car are okay.

I'm assuming that you have tow coverage when you talk about being reimbursed. You may want to ask your agent to run the numbers on filing the claim vs. paying for it yourself. If they add it to your tow coverage premium, it probably won't matter. If they record it as an accident, then it might increase your overall premiums.

[tiredofbeingbroke]

Am glad you are ok, and not much damage was done financially.
LMAO @ the image of Jimmy, Jimmy, and the bearded guy.

[mapgirl]

My Altima is glad that your Altima is A-Ok. I'm glad that things ended up well. I couldn't skim the post fast enough to find out you were ok.

Glad it turned out better than you initially expected. WHEW!

[Single Ma]

Lawdymercy child, this was too funny! Well, not really...I'm sorry you had a lil umm...incident. But I'm picturing Jimmy, Jimmy and the bearded guy...LMAO!! Gawd that's funny!

If you send the receipt to your insurance company, will you have to explain the "incident?" Will they consider the reimbursement a claim and try to raise your premium anyway? If so, I would file this one away and call it a wash for the bad karma.

Glad you're ok!