Image courtesy of Examiner.comCentral Indiana received a near record snowfall this week. In some places as much as 13 inches. I love everything about snow. I love the beauty it creates and I even enjoy the challenge of driving in it. I always like to brag that I’m the best driver in the snow and ice. Never encountering a situation I couldn’t maneuver out of—until yesterday, I found myself stuck.

The details aren’t exciting. I was driving in existing tracks attempting to turn around in a cul-de-sac. When the tracks turned into a driveway I failed to forge my own path.

A neighbor and her young kids spent an hour helping me free my car. Shortly into the effort, her neighbor stopped snowblowing his driveway and walked over to us. I thought he was going to offer to make a path, but instead he told me the reason I got stuck was because the front end of my car (a Ford Fusion) sat down too low. He told me to wait for the plows and walked away. My neighbor and I looked at each other and laughed with dumbfounded surprise at his thoughtlessness.

I wanted to show her family how grateful I was for their help. She had told me they just moved in, and their snow shovel got lost in the move. After I got home I walked to my brother’s house and drug his snowblower and gas can about a mile down our unplowed street and cleared her driveway. It wasn’t until I was done that we formally introduced ourselves and laughed about how our mornings had started.

About an hour ago, I noticed this on my friend’s Facebook wall: ”Collen is so grateful to a couple of kids in the neighborhood that shoveled my driveway today when we were gone!!!”

It makes me happy to hear stories of neighbors taking care of one another. Central Indiana got it bad, but not as bad as our Midwest neighbors. Help is on the way, but in the meantime, neighbors need to look past themselves and help each other.