Yesterday Gary went by the local repair shop where we take our cars, lately for way too many repairs we can ill afford, but I digress. This repair shop tows cars when they break down and also has a used car lot. What a smart business person to be so diversified. The repair shop got a call from an elderly woman whose car just quit in the middle of the road. When the owner got to the location, he found the woman standing in the middle of the road crying.
The owner hooked up the car to tow it in and had the woman sit in the tow truck with him. As they drove back to the shop the woman kept crying and crying, saying she couldn't afford the tow bill, she couldn't afford the repair bill, the car had been her husband's car who had passed away, she kept crying saying she couldn't afford her bills, she couldn't afford food, she couldn't afford anything any more. She cried the whole way back to the shop and just couldn't stop crying.
Anyway when the owner finally got the woman and her car back to the repair shop, the owner asked the woman to go out to his used car lot and pick out a car of her choice. He gave her the car and towed her old car back to her home. The owner knew her old car really wasn't worth repairing no matter what the cost. But she didn't want to part with that old car because her husband had bought it new so many years ago.
I talked to my friend in California yesterday, she pointed out there hasn't been a cost of living increase in social security in three years. Every job Gary has applied for has said the pay is minimum wage no matter how many years experience a person has. In an interview yesterday the person told Gary, "If you don't take the job, we'll just get someone else who will work for that".
With the rising cost of everything, especially necessities, like food, I can't help but wonder how many people are in this woman's shoes, one car break down away from a nervous break down. The photo above is a flower I saw in our lawn, less than an inch in diameter. A tiny flower, a weed really, but a beautiful bright spot in our sparse green lawn.
Boy, that's depressing news about the wages. I don't know how folks are going to survive.
ReplyDeleteNice shade tree mechanic story, though. Thank goodness there are folks like that in the world.
When we can't rely on the government to look out for our interests, we can always take care of each other.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story.
What a wonderful story of generosity and faith in our fellow man. It is almost unbearable, to think of how very tough it is for so many. I'm sure thinking twice about where I drive and what to buy for groceries. It all adds up and fast.
ReplyDeleteYour little sprig: Hope springs eternal?
Times really are getting tough and some very nice people are falling through the cracks. And they still want to cut programs.
ReplyDeleteA lovely but bittersweet story. How fortunate for that lady that there was a kind and generous person to hear her story, and respond. If we are not on this planet to care for one another, what are we here for? So many sad stories of people struggling.
ReplyDeleteLove your little flower. I read some quote the other day about The difference between a weed and a flower is a simple judgement. How true.
Hi Leslie, thanks, I guess Florida is a right to work state which means low wages, yeah that tow company owner is a nice guy.
ReplyDeleteHi Julia, thanks yes we have to rely on each other, but so many are in the same boat struggling I am not sure how much each person can do for another.
Hi Teresa, thanks, yes sometimes it is almost unbearable for me to think of others suffering so, I am trying to do small kindnesses along the way in hopes it will help in some small way, yes hope springs eternal, just fired it and it's ready for the glaze load.
Hi Patti, thanks, yes cut, cut, cut, - they should cut war and foreign aide to countries at war till we help those here first I say. Everywhere I go I hear a story of big business screwing the little guy unmercifully.
Hi Barbara, thanks, yes those suffering, probably too many silently, your weed description, an analogy of the poor of today in the USA today. it's all in how we look at our fellow man and how we treat him on a daily basis, even minute by minute.