It’s not often that it rains where I live in California and a summer shower is an even rarer occurrence but one June afternoon a few raindrops fell and black clouds still loomed. Because of those clouds my goal of a simple car wash turned into something much more special. My husband had called to tell me that his new/used car had been delivered so I headed over to office to check it out. He had purchased a nice used Mercedes from an online car auction site. He got it at a ridiculously low price. Maybe that was the reason it took so many weeks for the owner to finally flatbed it from Florida and maybe that was the reason why it came dirty with some fast food wrappers rolling around the car. Whatever the reason, when I saw its condition I knew I wanted to get it spruced up before my husband drove it home.
I headed over to a local car wash, but it was closed because of the light rain. Then I drove to another—same story. I decided to drive over to a do-it-yourself car wash center. Normally this place is bustling with multiple cars getting attended to. Today it was dark and deserted. It wasn’t even actually raining but there was nobody to be seen except a forlorn woman sitting on a low wall nearby.
The woman approached me and asked if I knew what bus she could take to get to a nearby Greyhound Bus terminal in another town. I told her I would think about the answer while I dried my car. I realized that I didn’t know. Our town didn’t have much of a transit system and it occurred to me that it would be faster to drive her over than to try to figure it out. She told me her name was Rose and she was going to take a bus across the country to go back to her family after getting out of a bad relationship.
I loaded her luggage into the now perfectly clean car. I enjoyed our chat as we drove the rural road connecting the towns. When we pulled in front of the bus terminal I gave her the money that was in my pocket as I had just gotten some cash at the bank before I picked up the car. She looked so relieved and grateful to receive it. We said our goodbyes quickly and I said a little prayer for her in my mind as I drove off hoping happier times would come her way.
I wondered later if she might have thought I was an angel who answered her prayers. So many things had come together that might make her think that. I am a very non-threatening looking female, the beautiful car (whose name meant favor, kindness, mercy), the lack of license plate, and the perfectly clean interior and exterior of the car. I wasn’t an angel but I was happy to play the part that afternoon and was so glad to have been put in the right place at the right time to help her. Maybe we are all answering each other’s prayers all the time. I’d like to think so.
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