A cute little Asian lady from the nail salon down the street restored my faith in Philadelphians last week.
It's taken me 5 days to write about it because I was a babysitting machine this past weekend and didn't have time. But excuses aside, this sweet story need not go untold.
After two record-breaking snowfalls back-to-back, my car was not only buried under 4 feet of snow and then plowed in, but also parked illegally in a no parking zone for over 24 hours (which I was not aware of until I dug the soggy blue paper out from under the two feet of snow that fell atop of it).
Amount of snow aside, I needed to move my car before I either A.) Got another ticket or B.) Got towed.
I geared up in the snow gear that I don't have; snow boots, snow gloves and snow pants would've been wonderful, but instead I braved the storm in tennis shoes, insulated running leggings, my one down jacket I just got for Christmas and the only gloves I could find - cheap $.99 gloves from walmart.
After knocking on multiple neighbor's doors who weren't home, I finally found a snow shovel in the back of my roommate's car and started to dig out my precious car. A lot harder task than I expected; after 20 minutes of getting seemingly nowhere, this cute, petite, not more than 5-feet tall Asian woman comes tredging through the snow in boots that drown her little legs from the nail salon across the way. I recognized her because she had been outside all morning digging out the front walk to her shop, by herself.
I figured she was on her way home to warm up as she headed my way, but then I hear in her sweet little accent, "I help you shovel."
I guess I didn't comprehend what she was saying right away or I was in shock for a couple minutes and I must have just stared at her and not moved because then I hear, "Come on, I help you dig!" (aka "come on, get moving!") as she's already shoveling away.
I couldn't believe after the hours she had already shoveled that morning, this woman would spend more helping a complete stranger. But I'm sure glad she did because I realized that even after my car is shoveled out, I don't know how to maneuver my car off ice when the wheels are spinning, but my sweet friend did. So she climbed her tiny self up into my SUV (I giggled at the sight of my car consuming her) and after 30 minutes of our digging, sweet conversation, and my new friend's ice-driving expertise, my car was free!
A smile was stuck on my face for the rest of the day remembering this woman's servant heart to a complete stranger (and maybe the image of her in my car, sitting on the very edge of my seat to reach the pedals...teehee).
