Monday, February 22, 2010

An Angel or Karma

Everyone has an angel and everyone has the ability to be an angel for someone. You can call it Karma, you can call it what ever you like but it is there.

Years ago when my children were both in car seats, I drove a two door Hyundai. The car seats were strapped into the back seat. I had the muffler replaced and an extension tube did not get replaced on the tail pipe. The bumper caught fire and I pulled over into the police department parking lot. After pulling over the flames shot up and the back end of my car was on fire. I pulled the kids out of the car and got them to safety before looking for help with the fire.

I ran into the police station and yelled for help. I told them my car was on fire and I needed an extinguisher. The police officer yelled at me for pulling my car into their parking lot and said he could not help. So much for protect and serve. That exchange took less than a minute and I was back out to my car. I pulled out one car seat but the smoke became too much to remove the other.

Then when I thought all was lost a silver Accord pulled over in the parking lot and the trunk sprang open. A tall , thin black man with a well kept goatee dressed in a gold suit stepped out of his car and pulled a fire extinguisher out of the open trunk. It took him less than thirty seconds to put out the fire. He turned to me and asked if we were O-Kay. The fire extinguisher was replaced in his trunk and he was on his way.

To this day I swear he was an angel sent to help me and the kids. I was so speechless I couldn't even form words to thank him before he was gone. Was he simply in the right place at the right time with the right equipment? Only you can answer that question.

Everything happens for a reason. This weekend I was at a conference. A friend came up for the conference on Saturday but did not intend to attend on Sunday. He changed his mind and arrived to the conference for the Sunday session. I had a ride set up for the airport but the ride cancelled out and I was left taking a taxi. My friend said he could take us to the airport.

On the way to the airport we were commenting on how his car was shaking. He thought he needed an alignment. We told him it was a bad tire. At the airport when we got out of the car I inspected his rear tire and found a major defect. I told him to be careful because that tire could blow out on him. He said he would go straight to the gas station and have the tire removed.

I received a text while at the airport waiting for my flight. My friend was driving and the car start to shake worse than ever. He pulled over to the shoulder and was going he said about ten miles an hour and the tire blew. I would hate to think what would have happened if he had been going seventy on the toll road.

So, plans changed and a potential bad out come is avoided. Right place at the right time. Karma? An angel? Call it what you like but I am so glad that my ride cancelled.