DEAR ABBY: I don't know whether this qualifies as an act of kindness or the work of an angel, but here it is:
Advertisement
One Christmas several years ago, my children and I were at my sister's in the country. After the festivities, the kids settled down to watch a movie while we cleaned up the kitchen.
Sometime during the movie, my 8-year-old son, Tim, became bored and slipped outside without anyone noticing. It was one of the coldest winters on record, and Tim wanted to see the ice on the pond some distance from the house.
He slipped, fell through the ice and into the pond, which was about 15 feet deep. He managed to cling to a chunk of ice and scream for help, but he was too far from the house for any of us to hear.
A man driving on the two-lane country road heard Tim's screams. He found my son and managed to pull him to safety with a piece of rope he had in his car.
The man drove Tim to my sister's house, where we immediately ripped off his frozen clothes and put him in the whirlpool bath they had just installed. By the time we returned from the bathroom, the man had disappeared.
That man saved my son's life. To this day, I secretly think he was an angel, but if he was a mortal, I am forced to believe in the universal goodness of humankind.
When I am feeling depressed, I remember that incident. There may be a great deal that's wrong with this country, but there's also a great deal that's right. -- REBECCA WURM, CLUTE, TEXAS
DEAR REBECCA: That was a Christmas miracle if ever I heard one, guardian angel and all.