DEAR ABBY: Please print this "act of kindness" letter so the person who helped me can get the proper thanks he deserves.
My boyfriend and I went out to a movie. As we got out of my car, I noticed that one of my tires was almost flat. He decided to go ahead and buy the tickets while I drove to a nearby gas station to put air in the tire. By the time I got back to the parking lot, the tire was completely flat, and it had begun to drizzle.
I called my boyfriend on his cell, only to have him tell me he had already bought the tickets, and he knew nothing about changing a tire. He said he'd wait inside the theater and for me to "hurry up." I stood there in shock.
I knew nothing about changing a tire, either. A man jogging by with his family on their way to dinner saw my distress, and sent his family ahead to get a table and dry off while he stopped to help me.
By then it was pouring rain, so my thank you to him was brief. He wouldn't accept anything for helping me and ran to join his family. I never got his name and have regretted it ever since.
When I entered the theater my boyfriend chewed me out for making him miss the first part of the show! All I could think of during the movie was how lucky that Good Samaritan's wife was to have such a kind husband, and how silly I was to still be sitting there with my jerk of a boyfriend.
The gentleman who helped me that evening changed more than my tire. He changed my life because he made me realize the kind of people I want to surround myself with -- people with the compassion to help a stranger, even if it means doing it in the pouring rain. -- THANKFUL IN LINCOLN, ILL.
DEAR THANKFUL: I, too, hope the kind-hearted man who stopped to help sees your letter because he is both selfless and generous. And I'm pleased you learned the important life lesson his good deed taught you. For your boyfriend to have left you standing alone in the rain while he waited inside the theater was not only selfish and inconsiderate, but also dangerous.