COMOX, B.C. – A Comox Valley resident says the kindness of total strangers during Tuesday night’s snowstorm reminds her why she chose the valley as the place to raise her family.
Just after eight o’clock, Natalie Younis’s Honda Odyssey slipped nose-first into a ditch on Anderton Road.
“I went to turn into a driveway to see one of our clients and I couldn’t tell where the ditch was and the road was, and my (van) started slipping sideways into the ditch,” Younis told the MyComoxValleyNow.com newswroom.
The community health worker said that once she was out of her van, as many as 15 people of all ages, including a carload of teens, stopped to offer help.
Ultimately, a motorist arrived with chains and used his truck to pull Younis’s van out of the ditch.
“He said ‘I saw you in the ditch, and I went home and grabbed chains and came back,'” Younis related.
Younis said she was extremely grateful for the help from the driver, who didn’t leave his name.
“I thought it was above and beyond, in that nasty weather, to drive back to your house, grab chains and come back and be willing to pull me out,” she said.
She was working that night, supporting people who need help receiving their medication and “remembering tasks that we take for granted like eating and personal care.
“It’s my job to go out in all weather, but I was really touched by the volume of both men and women who didn’t even think twice to pull over and offer help,” she said.
Younis said it was an emotionally rewarding experience.
“It just really warmed my heart,” she said. “I’m out doing my job, but those people didn’t have to stop; they didn’t have to offer help. I was really impressed with it. It renewed my faith on why we moved to the valley in the first place.”
