Even First Responders Need Help Too!

Mere minutes from her home, Andrea simultaneously noticed the early morning lineup outside the local grocery store and the bumpiness of the road. She was on her way to The Hospital for Sick Children where she worked in the emergency department some weekends when she wasn’t straddling her full-time job as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Barrie’s Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and Orillia’s Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. I don’t remember the road being this uneven, she thought as this single mom chatted hands-free with her son Colby, “Good morning, bud.”

Something was remiss. If she had a flat tire, wouldn’t someone in that lineup try to flag her down? She needed to check. “Hey, I am going to have to let you go. Mommy is going to have to call you back. I think there is something wrong with my tire. I need to have a look.”

Andrea hung up and found a spot to safely pull over. Oh, darn. Surveying the damage, she couldn’t help but say aloud, “I have a very flat tire and a bent rim. This is not good . . . not good. I am supposed to be at work for 10 a.m.”

Andrea hadn’t been at SickKids for a couple of weeks, so she had left her house with plenty of time to spare for the journey that usually took her just under an hour. It wasn’t quite 8:15 a.m., but with a flat tire, getting to work on time was not only in question, but getting there at all might also be in jeopardy.

Okay, Andrea. What should I do next? She called her son back, “Hey I won’t be able to talk right now. Mommy has to fix her tire. I will have to call you later today.” She hung up the phone. She was just about to figure out who to call next when a car pulled in behind hers.

“Hey, do you need help?”

Suddenly self-conscious that she was dressed for work in her scrubs with the big letters E-M-E-R-G-E-N-C-Y written across her back, Andrea wondered if most people would avoid her. “My gosh, yes! I didn’t think anyone would stop because of my uniform. I have a flat. I can save someone’s life in the Emergency Department, but I can’t change a tire to save my own life.”

“I can definitely change a tire,” the man replied.

“Really, you can do that? I promise to maintain physical distancing.”

The man chuckled, “Yeah. No problem. I am an off-duty tow truck driver.”

The mystery man got to work, and Andrea asked, “Can I drive to work with this spare tire?”

“Where do you work?”

“I’m on my way to SickKids in Toronto.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it. That is a long way to drive on a spare. Do you have any other tires?”

“I have another set at home in my garage.”

“Do you have CAA?” the man asked.

“Yes.”

“Why not call them and have them meet you at your house and they can put on a proper tire?”

Andrea made the call. “We can have someone out there around 9:15,” they assured.

“Oh . . . okay . . . thank you.” Andrea stammered. She definitely wouldn’t get to work on time. She called the hospital, apologizing profusely.

“Don’t worry, Andrea. This is totally out of your control. Please don’t stress.”

As the kind gentleman finished putting on the spare, a tow truck passed them, slowing but then continued on. “Are you good?” the stranger asked.

Am I good? she thought. It struck Andrea how good she actually was, considering. Usually when something like this happened, she would think it a catastrophic, end-of-the-world event. She would question, How could this happen to me? But instead, she felt uplifted. Despite this terrible inconvenience, she was still having a really good day. This is humanity at its best, she recognized.

Recently, Andrea had been discouraged. She had witnessed people being critical at grocery store staff, noticed others not following physical distancing rules, and viewed unkind messages online. However, seeing someone on a Saturday morning so willing to pull over and help her even though she was in uniform and considered a ‘plague nurse’ by some. It was affirming and made her believe in the goodness of humankind again. Kindness really does supersede everything else. It reminded her of why she chose to be a nurse in the first place.

A text came in from CAA: Tow truck will arrive at 8:36 a.m. This was great news, much early than first expected.

“What’s your name?” she asked the man just before he drove away. He answered, but with so much going on in her head, she was unable to process what he said or file his name permanently in her memory.

When Andrea got back to her house, the tow truck was already there.

“Hey, you’re the person I saw at the side of the road. I almost stopped, but then I got this call.”

“Yep, it’s me.”

He changed the spare, putting on a more permanent tire.

“I’ll move out of the way so you can take off for work. I can clean up after you go.” The tow truck drive offered. "Thank you for everything you do on the front line.”

Andrea thanked him and took off to work.

We are all warriors, she thought. Every single one of us are. Whether we are out working to keep others fed or healthy or if we are social distancing at home. Even we first responders need help, too, sometimes. And we are so very grateful for it.

Andrea parked and rushed in to start her shift. About to begin, she looked at her watch: 10:02 a.m. Could the day get any better? After all that, she was only two minutes late!

* * *

This is episode four in the series Coronavirus chronicles: Canadian caremongering. If you enjoyed this story, you can read other positive stories:

The Tooth Fairy Is Not Cancelled

40,000 Wedding Guests

An Open Letter to the Employees at a Small-Town Nova Scotia Grocery Store

These and other great stories will be part of a soon-to-be-released book called Not Cancelled: Canadian Caremongering in the Face of COVID-19.