A little help

I’d finished a day’s teaching today when, on getting to my car, realised it was dead. Very, very dead. Boot light most probably. I am a muppet. I was a good half an hour from home, the Friday traffic was stinky and about to get stinkier and nursery had called to ask me to get my daughter ASAP as she’d had a tough day with her healing collar bone.

I was about to contemplate a few swear words and, let’s be honest, just sob in the car park, when six of the guys I’d been teaching came along. One of them fetched jump leads, and when that didn’t work they got behind my car and pushed it across the car park at a run to bump start it.

The engine purred, I got back in time to get my daughter.

We’d been training during the day in managing cardiac arrests. I’m very grateful they took the time (meaning they also probably got stuck in stinky traffic) to apply their skills to resuscitating my car. While I know how to jump start a human, my car might as well be the space shuttle: I had zero hope of fixing it alone. I really should do a course The guys I was teaching were in their uniforms for the first time today. They looked really proud of them and as I watched six green backs disappearing across the car park pushing my car I have never been more proud of the spirit the uniform represents. Sometimes we can’t fix what’s in front of us… other times it just needs a bit of electricity and some team work.

My heroes.