To act or not to act

Sometimes acts of charity present themselves and we have to decide if we are meant to be a part of it and how.

Yesterday evening I was driving on Anderson Ave in Milford when my daughter and I noticed a distraught woman pulled over on a corner of a side street. She was trying to wave someone down and she was upset. The way her car was parked looked like maybe she had broken down or hit something. My daughter said, "pull over Mom"! Normally I would have called 911 and said someone by the road needs help. Obviously, no one else was stopping, either. But since we were in a familiar, busy public area, in daylight, in front of houses and yards and passing cars I decided to stop. 

I pulled over several yards up and left my daughter in the car with the keys and her phone (she's a teenager). I approached the woman along the edge of the yards until I was about 25 feet away. She was so relieved someone had pulled over. She kept a respectful distance so I would know she was legit and we shouted to each other. (This is what it has come to! But better safe than sorry.)

It turned out she had written directions (and apparently no GPS or cell phone) and she couldn't figure out what road she was on or the house numbers. I confirmed she was on the right road and spotted a number on a mailbox across the street. She was going in the wrong direction and the street name changes there which was throwing her off. I got her on the right track and she went on her way. She had been crying, probably out of frustration (been there!), and when I left her she was smiling and calm. All in about 2 minutes of my time. 

The best part? When I got back in the car my daughter was so happy I stopped and helped and she felt I had done a really good thing.