Singapore—In a heartwarming story, three young men proved to a stranded mum and her son that the kindness of strangers can truly be depended on.
Wai Peng Loh took to Facebook on September 27 to write about an incident that started by making her angry and then ended up by being heartwarming after all, due to three young men who changed her tyre in the pouring rain. Not only that, they were also helping other motorists in the same situation. Her photo of the inspiring trio walking away into the (very wet) night has since been shared over 2,500 nights.
https://www.facebook.com/waipeng.loh/posts/10158147142588551
Ms Wai had been on her way home with her young son on the SLE at half-past eleven in the evening when her tyre gave out. Since she didn’t know how to change it and her husband wasn’t with her, she called for a tow truck.
Unfortunately, her conversation with her insurer only made her angry.
“I called the insurer hotline and after taking down my car plate no., the lady told me she would call me back. 20 min passed and nothing happened. I called back and the same lady told me that she couldn’t find my renewed insurance policy as their system was down. She then went on to ask me if I could remember my insurance policy number for her to proceed further. I was speechless!!! I mean who on earth would remember policy numbers! She then went on to explain the claim process if I didn’t have the policy etc etc..”
Ms Pai’s son started crying after this, as he thought they would be stuck in a flood and not be able to get home. At that point, his mum had already raised her voice at the insurer, saying she would pay first and asking for the tow truck to be arranged for the vehicle.
Fortunately, this was when the three young heroes came in, just as Ms Pai comforted her worried son.
“This is where the heartwarming part begins – one of them knocked on my car door, asked if I am getting help and offered to help if I had a spare tire in the car. Turns out that their car, along with a few others along that stretch had their tires busted as well.”
The young men must have realized that the others who were stranded on SLE also needed help, and so after they fixed their car, they went to assist others.
At this point the rain was falling heavily, and the young men were really wet. Ms Pai kindly thought about just sending them home, but as the insurer had failed to call her back, she gratefully said yes to the offer of help.
The young men sent Ms Pai back into the car to be with her son, who was “was still a little traumatised,” and were able to change the tyre within ten minutes.
After reminding her to drive slowly, the young men left. Ms Pai wrote that she had been unable to get their names, but did get a picture of them walking away.
“I shook their hands and thank each of them before we parted. I was so relieved when my boy and I could finally continue our way home.”
She added that she hoped that they would see her post so that she could thank them again.
“If they do see this message, I just want to again say ‘Thank you so much for going out of your way to help us. You have been blessed with kind hearts and I wish the 3 of you well and happy’.
That night I told my boy to be thankful for what we experienced and I know that in future whenever I am educating my boy about kindness, he will be reminded of the ‘3 gor gor in the rain’.”
People commenting on Ms Pai’s much-shared post said there had been a pothole that caused flat tyres to their vehicles as well, and posted photos as proof.
And while netizens were thankful for the kindness of the three young men, others wanted Ms Pai to name the insurer who had been remiss in their duties that night. While she did not name the insurer, she wrote in a comment that she “called the insurer office directly who confirmed that I was indeed covered. But when I separately called the emergency hotline just to check their records, again they said I wasn’t covered.” —/TISG