Strangers.

I was comfy cozy on my couch watching my Tuesday night line-up when a loud crash interrupted the oh-so-intense dialogue of "90210." Annie was upset; she had just caught her parents fighting. How will she ever get through this disaster?

I didn't really move as sometimes I dilute my perceptions and don't think it's a big deal until someone else acknowledges that something has occurred, when A-town yelled from the other room. Oh, I guess she heard it to, maybe we should investigate?? Pause on Annie's face of turmoil.

We both rushed out onto our deck to investigate the cause of the sound. It had been raining, (surprise surprise Oregon) and dusk had fallen. Beautiful trees surround our abode so it was difficult to see through those, the darkness and the wetness to see what had occurred. We saw a car had pulled over to the barely there shoulder; only one car. Hmmmm. Our attention diverted from said car when we heard another loud noise come from another car about 100 yards behind the initial one. Something metal was now in the road and drivers were unable to see it due to the aforementioned conditions. On a main highway of commuters this could be cause for disaster.

I got on the phone to share this information so someone could come and take care of this as the last thing we'd care to witness that night is a car crash in front of our condo. Mission: Save Lives. During my phone call, Adelle and I stayed on our deck to watch the car that had pulled over. Finally, the driver attempted to move his car and a sound accompanied this effort that can only be compared to screeching nails-on-the-chalkboard as he was clearly driving on the rim of his wheel.

"Should I go down there?" Adelle asked as I was on hold with the authorities.

"Yeah, I think so."

In the meantime, a man who was walking his dog had seen the commotion we had heard minutes before. He had hurried back to his house to put the dog away, jumped in his car, and drove over to our condo where the wrecked car had moved to. His name was Jim.

Adelle met Jim in the parking lot who had already offered his cell phone and assistance to the elderly gentleman, Dick, who was behind the wheel. Dick claimed that the median had 'jumped up in front of me.' In Dick's defense, the median is hard to see when you are unfamiliar with the road and when it is dark out, but we came to find that Dick was born in 1914 as well. So a lot of things are hard to see when you were born two years after the Titanic sunk. He probably knew Rose Dawson...if only informally.

I joined Jim, Adelle and Dick after making sure someone was coming out to remove the hazard from the highway. The cops came and went and handed Jim what we now found out to be the hubcap to Dick's car. Dick seemed pretty together, he was a bit shaken up at first, but began to partake in our awkward discussion. Here we were: Two 25 year old women, a 65 year old man and a 96 year old man. We don't too often witness a crowd like this hanging out in their spare time. But there was something special about it.

Being that AAA likes to take their sweet time, we had about an hour and a half of time to waste in the parking lot while we waited with Dick and found out a lot about him. He was a vet of WWII in the Navy, a 1936 graduate of U Dub, he'd been married 71 years to his wife whom he'd had 4 girls with and they'd traveled the world together. They lived in Greece for 3 years which immediately connected us. Imagine that, a 96 year old caucasian man and I have something in common.

Toward the end of our conversation, I thought about how I was missing 'Glee' (in REAL time...it was being DVR'd) and wondered why the universe found it necessary for our paths to cross that night. I'm still not really sure why, but there is something to say for the beauty in meeting strangers. If I'd just seen Dick on the street, there is a slim chance that I'd stop and carry on a conversation with this elderly man.

Before we parted, Dick trembled as he put his hand in his pocket in search of a piece of paper.

"Can I get both of your girls' addresses so I can formally thank you?"

Adelle reluctantly took the paper as this wasn't necessary, but what a kind and traditional gesture this man had made. One which we tend to forget.

The beauty in a thank you.

The beauty in helping out a complete stranger.

"There are no strangers here. Only friends who haven't met yet." -Irish proverb spotted in a bar in Philadelphia.

It was a pleasure to meet you, Dick.