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Youths provide kindness by the shovelful

Dear Editor, A knock at the front door of our acreage home had me running to answer it. Through the glass side panels I could see two teenagers waiting for me to respond.

Dear Editor,

A knock at the front door of our acreage home had me running to answer it.

Through the glass side panels I could see two teenagers waiting for me to respond. A third was waiting in an older black car that had seen one or two accidents in its time.

My dilemma... do I open the door after reading some pretty scary stories in the news or pretend I was not home? Since they had now seen me through the glass, I decided to take a chance with my life, swallow my fear, and find out what they wanted. “Yes”, I said coldly with one eyebrow raised.

The two young men immediately said they felt they had the wrong house. Two days before they had seen an elderly man trying to dig out his car from the deep drifted snow in his laneway.

They stopped and helped him dig out the car.

They were now on their way back with shovels in hand to completely clear the rest of his lane. They felt badly for him and just wanted to help.

Since our lanes are close together, they had driven down ours instead of our neighbours. I could have cried because first of all, how kind and considerate is this. And secondly, we had been out of town ourselves so had not been home to help out our neighbours so was unaware of their dilemma. These great kids (anyone under 30 is a kid to us) not only stopped on one day to dig out his car, but also returned two days later to finish the job.

Boys, I did not ask you your names or know who you are, but I wish I had so I could have called your parents to tell them what fine young men they have raised.

Thanks for being so caring and considerate. And thanks for teaching me that people can still be trusted. I will try not to be so judgemental in the future.

Sheila Murphy

MD of Foothills




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