I want to say a big “Thank You” to a neighbour who helped me out yesterday with snow clearing. I had completed all that I had wanted to do but I still had that wall of snow sitting at the end of the driveway blocking my access to the road. You know that horrible stuff that is full of road dirt, salt and mud, and is more ice blocks than snow.
I was struggling. I had to chop it out and then heave heavy blocks of snow and ice up onto the snow bank, making sure it didn’t topple back onto the sidewalk or the road. A young man approached me from the other side of the road. He said, “I couldn’t walk by and watch you struggling without helping. Let me finish the job for you.”
I was flabbergasted and relieved. My regular snow clearing guy of eight years is unable to do it this year and I have been worrying about how I was going to handle clearing a six car driveway for the rest of the winter. It’s made even more difficult because the driveway is long and narrow and the only place snow can be piled up is at either end of the driveway and it must be heaved up over a raised wall at the front.
I ran in the house and brought him out a coffee. The job took him ten minutes. For me, it would have been a half-hour or more with frequent rests between shovelfuls. I offered him money but he wouldn’t take it. I told him my story and how I was still looking for someone to help me clear my driveway for the rest of the winter. He offered to help me out until the end of March.
It turns out he is a mature student, gone back to school to get a social work degree. He has four children of his own and hopes to work with children some day. He’s going to help me keep just the end of the driveway clear, enough for two cars, until school is over. He lives just down the street and walks by my house every day. “Just leave the shovels out for me at the back of the house, and I will clear your driveway when I go by as it is needed. It won’t take me more than half and hour.” For that, I will pay him the fee I would have paid my regular snow guy. I will insist.
Thank you, Chris, my Snow Angel. Thank you for your kindness.