A neighbour visiting with a snowblower is positively divine
To the Expositor:
There is a man who lives in Manitowaning who is the designated angel of Walcott Street. He may not look like an angel; he wears a winter snowsuit, has red cheeks when the temp dips to a chilling –21°C, frost bites into his beard. His name is Walter.
At first, I was not aware of his supernatural qualities. He seemed so ordinary, drinking beer with his buddies on the back deck. But he was aware of other people’s situations. He just wasn’t in the advertising business.
It took me a long time to figure this out. This year’s winter hardships brought out my desperation. I just couldn’t shovel anymore snow. The drifts in the driveway were over my head. I was totally and completed defeated. I quit. I gave up. I didn’t know what to do.
Then here comes Walter walking his snowblower down the street, going to help his friend. I coerced him into helping me. That’s what desperation does. And he did, reluctantly. But then there was the next day and the next. And it’s still January.
Yesterday, the snow fell ever so softy, relentlessly, all day. I shoveled in the morning. I shoveled at night. It made no difference. The snowplow came along, buried my car in the driveway, 4’ high and 10’ deep. It was a blizzard triple whammy. The only thing left to do was to go back inside and hibernate out the winter.
Then I saw that someone had come with a snowblower and cleared out the snow from the back of my car to the street. Still, it was not enough. The snowbanks on either side of the driveway were too high.
Then I saw the front loader coming down the street. There was no way it was getting past me.
This was a situation that required desperate action. Thankfully, it was not required. I saved myself the public humiliation of throwing myself into the scoop of the front loader. The driver was very nice. In five seconds, this huge machine moved a mountain of snow.
These events taken in sequence could possibly be divinely inspired, prompting some of us to believe. There are angels among us.
Lee Weimer
Manitowaning
