Thursday 3 March 2016

Pushing a Car at 6 Months Pregnant

What a story I have to share with you all!

Last weekend, I was in Vancouver alone *gasp - yup, this really happened* for some training for work. It was great to have a little bit of freedom and time to myself. More on that another time.

A highlight of my trip was filled with a mixture of anxiety, slight panic and a huge moment of relief.The story goes:

On my first day of training, I didn't leave the building until 5pm. It was just starting to drizzle, and daylight was fading away slowly. I entered the car I was using, a Mitsubishi RVR, and started my engine. All seemed to be somewhat normal - until about 3 seconds later when I was backing up. The car would NOT drive forward! Because of my positioning, the vehicle blocked this big-ass Ford F-150 black truck (newly polished I might add) and from what I could tell, the owner took excellent care of it.

My first thoughts were: CRAAAAAAAAAAP. I'm going to have a p'od truck driver if I don't get this car out of the way!


At 6 months pregnant, I actually attempted to push the car forward. No luck. Tried restarting the engine. Again, no luck. With no security guard around, I scrambled to find anyone who was still working at that hour. Luckily there was a disgruntled social worker who was 'sort of' willing to help me (keep in mind, my training was at BC Women's Hospital). I told him that I had a hearing loss and wouldn't be able to call BCAA (BC's automotive association) for help, AND that I was 6 months pregnant. His response? "Can't you talk on the phone? I can't help you with the car, my arm's broken"

Seriously? Dude... that didn't come across cool in my book.

After much convincing that I wouldn't be able to communicate via phone effectively, he called BCAA on my behalf. While waiting for BCAA to respond to the query, I decided to go back and try to move the car away from the big Ford F-150. Using my body weight, I actually managed to move the car maybe 50 meters in reverse and stop it with my weight as well. Weird. The car would move backwards, but not forward!

Just as I got the car out of the F-150's way, a huge, surly looking black man came up to the F-150. Given how dark it was getting, it made me nervous at this point as a woman clearly half his size. To my amazement, he said he would help me with the car and managed to get it started as if it were magic. Hallelujah

I gave him a big hug and told him he was my angel sent from heaven.

Then I gave him another HUGE hug. Why?

His wife had just given birth to their first child only an hour before!

Holy smokes, I thought. God works in mysterious ways - sending this gentleman out right at that time and place in what was the happiest day of his life.

After parting ways, I went back to the disgruntled social worker and told him that someone had helped me get my car started again. He pretty much shooed me out of there.

The lesson of the story: ALWAYS have a BCAA App ready to go on one's phone. Especially if you're hard of hearing! Would have saved me an annoying encounter with this particular social worker... and that there are some pretty amazing people in this world who really care. 

Update: Mitsubishi ran tests on the car and the results were inconclusive. Fingers crossed this doesn't happen again!

 

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