On a chilly weekend in September, my three young kids, my mom, and I visited the dazzling Asian Lantern Festival at the Pittsburgh Zoo. As we tend to do often at events, we stayed until the latest possible time, exiting around 9 p.m. to make the drive home to Hampton. The parking lot lights flicked on and off, making for a dark scene as we made our way to our old, semi-reliable van.

As we pulled out of the parking spot, we heard the unmistakable thumping of a flat tire. I pulled right over into another spot and called my husband, who was home with our baby and couldn't come out to help fix it. He told me to call AAA. As I was about to do so, with one of our three children already asleep in the back, I heard a man's voice talking to my mom. An angel. I have no idea how he even saw us.

He didn't offer to just replace the completely deflated tire with the spare since he was worried we would be driving on the highway. He told us that he had a fix-a-flat kit and would drive our tire over to the nearest gas station to fill it after he pulled out the screw that was firmly lodged inside.

The whole ordeal — jacking up our unwieldy van, pulling off the tire, prying out the screw, driving the tire over to the station and back, and reattaching the tire — took him (and his extremely patient girlfriend or wife) almost an hour in the dark with only the help of some phone flashlights. He even had patience with two of my children who watched the whole ordeal too closely in their socks.

We talked that night to our kids about the kindness of strangers that we had just witnessed in action. We also talked about how so often we focus on bad luck — the flat tire — instead of good luck — a kind stranger. What a teachable moment. Even for me.

Thank you, angel of Natrona Heights. I am sorry we never got your name, but we will forever be grateful and will make our best efforts as a family to pay it forward.

TARA EUCULANO

Hampton

First Published: November 9, 2023, 10:30 a.m.