Knights in Shining Armour Do Exist

So I went out shopping today. Silly thing to do, a week before Christmas, but I had stuff to get. So. I left home at noon.

At 7 p.m., I came out of Target to find that someone had parked an extended-cab pickup truck next to my CRV in such a way that there was no way I could ever back my car out of the space. I am not “the world’s best back-wards driver” and this person was angled over the line into my space a good 12 inches, with his back bumper less than three inches from mine. (My car was in the exact center of the parking space — which was probably a good thing.)

I got in the car and sat for a minute, setting my purse in its spot, putting my packages away, and trying to think. My kids were coming home in about an hour, and I didn’t want to sit and wait for whoever had done this ridiculously bad parking job to finish their shopping and come out of the store. I wanted to get home and hide the gifts I’d just bought.

I got out of the car and walked to the back. I looked. Yep. Three inches between his bumper and mine. No way was I gonna try to back that sucker out. Shaking my head and fighting back tears of frustration, I turned to go back and settle into my seat.

I had parked next to the cart corral, and from the other side of it, a man suddenly called to me, “Great parking job, wasn’t it?” I looked up, and there was a man leaning out of his car’s window. He gestured to his wife, who was sitting in the passenger seat. “We saw it. The guy was either drunk or crazy. Can you get out? Do you need help?”

I shook my head. “No way I can get out. He’s too close.”

The man said, “I could get you out. Will you let me?”

I looked back at him doubtfully. I did not need a wreck. But his wife was nodding encouragingly and he seemed pretty confident. So I said, “Are you sure?”

“Sure, I know I can. And you stand right there in that empty spot in the cart thing and watch, and next time you’ll know what to do.”

So the man got out of his car and I handed him my key. He got in, started my car, slowly rolled it back an inch or two, then cut the wheel hard toward the truck and pulled forward really slowly. The he put it back in reverse, turned the wheel again, and backed out slowly.

As he pulled my car to a safe place, his wife leaned over and said, “I’m glad you let him do that for you. He’s a pilot, and does that with the really big airplanes all the time. I knew he could do it.” And she smiled happily and settled back into her seat.

I walked to my car, took my key from the man, thanked him, shook his hand … hugged him. Blessed him. My tears of frustration had turned to tears of gratefulness and joy.

I don’t run across a lot of knights in shining armour. I’m sure they are out there. But it seems that usually, when they’ve found their fair lady — the one who cheers them on and who they rescue from the evil dragon — they doff their armour, hang up their sword, and sit on their laurels. This guy hadn’t. He still had his armour on, his sword burnished and ready for action, and his eyes looking for the next quest.  And his fair lady was there, urging him on, praising him and encouraging him.

I don’t know who they were, but God does. And my prayer is that He will bless them both in a very special way, because they very much blessed me.

Tags: Christmas, good people, holidays, kindness, shopping, True Stories