Greasy Hands but Warm Hearts

Something amazing happened to me yesterday. My car broke down.

That’s not the amazing part, that’s the beginning of the story. I pulled out of my driveway and the gear shaft knob broke off in my hand. I was in drive but could not put my car into reverse or park. I could switch it to neutral, but that was about it.

I panicked.

Normally I’m not so frettish, but Covid has made me emotionally more fragile, because everything has become more of a hassle and nothing seems to work the way it should. I also had an appointment later that day that I could not reschedule, and now I was worried about missing it.

So as I started slowly driving to my mechanic, I found myself complaining to God. Why, I asked Him, was He allowing this to happen to me? Wasn’t I dealing with enough burdens?

I interspersed these with prayers begging for my mechanic to be open. After all, many businesses had shortened or cancelled days thanks to the pandemic.

So I was worried about whether the mechanic would be open, how long it would take to fix a car I needed for transportation, and of course there was the financial aspect…

Lo and behold, my mechanic was open. When I frantically ran into the shop, they calmed me down and took care of everything.

A person was sent out to get my parts right away. I over heard the owner calling in the order for the parts, and directing the store to only provide the pieces that were broken, not the whole assembly, so they could minimize my cost.

At one point, I mentioned I was hungry, and was there a place I could walk to to get a sandwich?

The owner responded, “We ordered pizza for lunch. Why don’t I warm some up for you?”

As I finished my meal, they finished fixing my car. The bill was a lot less than I had feared.

I was so grateful.

When I got home, I called to thank them again. The owner said, “Shefali, you looked so frazzled when you came in, we had to take care of you. We’re so glad we made your day better.”

I felt humbled. I thanked God for showing me that yes, even during a pandemic, kindness exists and people look after each other.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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