MISERY AND MIRACLES
One of my favourite stories of goodwill and kind strangers, from a day that was miserable and just kept getting worse.
May 2022
For three days I’ve been sick with a miserable cold. For some inexplicable reason I picked the coldest rainiest day to finally venture out of the house and drive 20 minutes to the nearest drugstore and health food store. Where, for some inexplicable reason, my car wouldn’t start when I came out of the store. And so I stood in the pouring rain in the parking lot (wearing inexplicably inappropriate summer clothing) trying to find someone to boost my car.
I did, in fact, have booster cables. They were in my trunk in a zipped pouch whose zipper had FUSED SHUT (inexplicably). So I started looking for men in large pick-up trucks who looked like they might have booster cables. There were lots of men in large pick-up trucks. None of them had booster cables.
All this time I was ignoring the middle-aged Mennonite woman with three children who was sitting in a nearby 4x4 watching my piteous attempts. Finally she got out, came over to me through the driving rain and said, “Do you need some help?”
“Well, I need booster cables.” I said.
“I have some!” she replied cheerfully, “but I don’t know how to use them!”
“I do,” interjected her ten year old son morosely.
Five minutes later we were all hooked up. I started my car. Nothing.
Readjusted the clips. Tried again. Nothing.
“I’ll call my husband,” she said, whipping out a cell phone.
Eight attempts and four phone calls to her husband later we were still no better off. And the rain was still coming down. The Mennonite lady was soaked but she was NOT accepting failure on her watch, no sirree. “I’ll find a man in a truck in this parking lot. Surely one of them can help.”
“Good luck with that,” I said, sneezing, as she marched off with determination.
Two minutes later she was back with an old Mennonite man with a truck, who happened to be a friend of her family’s.
He readjusted the clips. Nothing.
“Jiggle the gear shift while you start it,” he suggested. I did.
Nothing.
Then he got in my car and jiggled the gear shift while starting it.
VROOMMM.
I thanked him.
He smiled and ambled back to his truck.
Then I thanked the woman. Profusely. Repeatedly.
“Oh that’s alright,” she said. “I was just thinking how I’d feel if it was me in that situation.” And off she marched, children in tow.
Car Starting Hack:
[Note: I did eventually get the car fixed!]
There are many things that can cause a car not to start or turn over at all (obviously battery is one), but if you’re having intermittant trouble and it occasionally makes no noise when you turn the key but other times works fine, try this trick…
In the video he talks about putting it in neutral…you can also jiggle the gearshift until the connection is made. Both options were mentioned to me later by mechanics, in case I were to get in this situation again.