A break in the clouds Photo by Victoria Willoughby
It was almost 20 years ago and a beautiful summer afternoon in Central New York. I had come with my roommate and life long friend on his family’s farm, following the crumbling of my second marriage. We intended to spend the summer working on the farm and then go back to our home in Virginia Beach.
I had been to Syracuse to get some paperwork I needed for the dissolution of my marriage and it was imperative that I get it in to the mail before 5 pm. Where I was staying in Pennelleville the Post Office was right across the street so I was heading back to the farm to send my paperwork off, it was 4:45 so I had just enough time to make it.
There are two Phoenix exits and I debated which one to take. I opted to pass the first and go to the second but as I put my foot down further on the accelerator to pass the first exit the pedal seemed to fall right out from under my foot. My Volkswagen bug had a faulty gas gauge and I had miscalculated. Fortunately I had not yet passed the exit and was able to veer off just in time to coast to the shoulder of the off ramp and park. I tried to restart it to no avail. I thought, “Great! Now I’ll won’t be able to make the Post Office closing and that will screw up all my legalities.
I looked in my rear view and there was a car right on my back bumper. I collected my belongings and started to get out as the car pulled around me and came to a stop at the sign at the end of the off ramp. I started to walk and the car backed up toward me. I was not sure what to think about this but kept walking.
As I walked along the driver’s side of this car that was still backing up toward me, I could see that on the back seat was a 5 gallon container and it was full of gas! The man rolled down his window and asked if I was out of gas. I told him that I was and that I had $2 in my pocket. I would happily pay him for that small amount of gas I needed to get back. He cheerfully got out, dispensed the gas, collected the $2 and I was on my way.
When things look like they really aren’t going to work out, its not time to despair, it is time to hope and time to ask for what we need at the time!
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