A random stranger saved a mom and daughter who were stuck in the middle of an incredibly busy (and fast moving highway). This is OUR South Africa!
Kat Stott shared the inspirational story on Facebook where South Africans are celebrating the Good Samaritan and thanking him for his act of kindness! The story is also important as it shows what most main-stream media don’t… our human kindness, our ubuntu, our South Africaness!
“I need to shout out praise for a fellow human being today. Someone who I believe saved me and my daughter from a fate that could have been death or serious injury. A selfless, kind and compassionate human who I cannot classify as anything else but a guardian angel!”
Stott broke down in the middle of the N1 highway on Saturday while en route to a wedding with her daughter. The car just failed them and stopped working while in the middle lane. All she could do was pull the handbrake up and put her hazard lights on.
“People were hooting at me – like I’d actually chosen to stop in the middle lane of the flippin’ N1 – screaming at me and flashing their lights as they swerved away at the last second.
You cannot believe the craziness of being stationery on a highway that is flowing at 120km an hour. When you’re driving you are a part of the flow, so you don’t feel the speed. When you stop, you suddenly realise how vulnerable you are. It was HARROWING. Watching through my rear-view mirror as a 16-wheeler truck filled my back window, only to swerve away from hitting me within milliseconds. Watching 15 cars pile up behind me at random angles as they swerved to miss one another and ultimately prevent themselves from crashing into me. How we didn’t get hit was beyond me and an absolute MIRACLE!”
She had called Discovery Insure to come and assist and they were on the way, but all the mom and daughter could do was wait.
“Next minute I look in the rearview mirror, and there was an e-Toll tow truck parked behind me and this man at my window. My initial reaction was that I can’t pay this guy and Discovery is on the way. He says to me: “I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you. All I want is for you to be safe. Someone is going to bump you… you are not safe here.”
Needless to say, I burst into tears. This kind man’s consideration for us as strangers was just beyond incredible.”
He was wearing reflective clothing, so he started by directing traffic away from the car as he placed beacons in the lane behind and around them. He drove his truck to the front and then came and took her daughter by the hand and escorted her to the safety of his vehicle. He told Stott to put her car in neutral and remove the handbrake so that he could hitch it up and pull it onto the flatbed. He then came and personally escorted the mom to the cab of his truck and finished pulling her car up.
He drove them a few hundred metres to the closest eToll gantry where there was a wide concrete section to park on. He took the car down off the flatbed and then came to Stott again and said…
“I didn’t want to scare you or hurt you. All I wanted to know was that you were safe.”
“I asked him his name, his name is Godfrey.
I told him that he is an incredible human being and that the world needs more people like him and that I would be eternally grateful for his help and kindness. He sat in his truck and waited until Discovery Insure picked us up and as soon as he knew we were okay, he drove off. Just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, but I will never forget his kindness!
I am still so overwhelmed by his compassion. He is pure light and love. Thank you, Godfrey, may life be ever so kind to you!”