Rules Were Made to be Broken

It was late fall, The year was 1990. The children and I had recently moved from Dayton, Ohio to Maryland during the summer of 1989 and we were muddling along trying to find our way. That move was quite challenging physically, emotionally and financially. Just about a week before we were scheduled to move, I injured my eye playing racquetball and suffered a corneal abrasion. It was extremely painful and I didn’t think I’d be able to drive from Ohio to Maryland with the children. However, true to my nature, whenever I make up my mind to do something, you can just about count on it being a done deal. I’m sure that is one of many characteristics that my ex didn’t appreciate about me.  However, in this case, my ex, out of the goodness of his heart (actually I think it was because of the children), decided to drive us from Dayton, Ohio to Maryland. I had already come previously to find an apartment, after soliciting my mother-in-law to come and stay with the children. After settling in, my next major hurdle was getting the car registered. As things often go for me when it comes to cars, the car couldn’t pass inspection. It had a lot of things that needed to be fixed (including some rust). It wasn’t worth fixing it so here I was in a new city with my three children ages 2, 5 and 7 with no car!!! Side note: Maybe this story should be entitled “Angels – seen and unseen – part II”. My long time friend, Barbara and her husband, Roscoe, decided to let me borrow their second car until I could figure out what to do. Once again, my ex came to the rescue and met me in NY and brought me a car. Mind you, it wasn’t anything fancy. It was a 1989 Hundai with absolutely NO FRILLS – no air conditioner, no power steering, no automatic windows – not even a clock. The good news is that it got me from point A to point B. He also purchased the extended warranty which we both assumed would be a good idea. Off he went trasping to his part of the world and I took my broken heart and the children and off we went back to Maryland. Things went well for about a year. During that time I had managed to get a part time job working from 10am – 2pm which meant that I could take the children to school and to the babysitter and make it to work on time and then pick them up after school. As life goes, things started to fall apart. One morning after I dropped Yamil and Maya off at school and Nayda at the babysitter, the car started acting funny. I decided to take it to the Hundai dealer which was about two towns over from where we were living at the time. I was afraid to turn the car off because it was giving me trouble starting up. Since I didn’t have a scheduled appointment I proceeded to put my name on the list and wait. Of course you know as soon as I turned the car off, it wouldn’t start up again. I had ruled out battery trouble and the car was only 1 year old so it couldn’t be the starter.  After sometime, they checked the car only to tell me that it was the alternator. What???? How could that be? They informed me that it would be at least $600 to fix. I let them know that I had a warranty on the car – being completely sure that it would be covered. They came back and told me that the warranty wasn’t any good because I purchased it in New York. Once they gave me that news they informed me that I would have to pay for the repairs and then submit the receipt  it to the warranty company in NY.  I stood there completely dumbfounded. What was I going to do? I had no money!!!! They told me that I took credit cards – VISA, mastercard, Amex. I stood there looking at them like they were crazy and then they very rudely dismissed me and went on to the next customer. I had no idea what I was going to do. Being newly divorced nobody would give me a credit card. I was only working part time. I really think it’s a shame the way divorced people are treated. I couldn’t even open a bank account when I first came to Maryland. I had to wind up getting my ex to open the account which gave him access to any funds I had.  I couldn’t drive the car because it wouldn’t start. How was I going to get to work? I didn’t even have cab money. Since this was BCP (before cell phones), I reached in my purse to find money to call the job. When my co-worker answered I just immediately started crying. She offered to come and pick me up. After I hung up I decided maybe I would go and talk to the customer service people again. Once again, they dismissed me and said there was nothing they could do. I started explaining how I didn’t have any money and no credit cards and that all I had was a car that wouldn’t start and three children who would be expecting me to pick them up, I reiterated how I purchased the warranty just for circumstances like that. By this time, I was inconsolable. I was crying loudly, pacing back and forth in the waiting area. Finally, one of the service team workers came out from the back and asked what was wrong. I proceeded to explain my situation through sobs and tissues. I told him I didn’t know what to do. He decided to take the information from me about the warranty and after working on it for about an hour, he got the dealership to honor the warranty from the NY dealership. The fact that someone took the time to look further into my individual situation and help made me overwhelmed with gratitude!!!  I wrote a letter to the President of the dealership on his behalf and asked that he be recognized for his sensitivity and intuitiveness in going the extra mile, against the normal rules, to help. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR KINDNESS! Rules are very important in maintaining order; however, it takes a special person that can evaluate a situation, determine that the rules should be set aside and then proceed to make positive things happen. I will never forget that young man, Jim Guzel. God sent an angel that day as he has sent angels both seen and unseen throughout my lifetime to be my very present help in time of need.

“Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.” (Isaiah 43:4)

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P.S. I did hear back from the President of Lane Hyundai within 5 days (letter dated Nov. 20, 1990) acknowledging my letter and thanking me for taking the time to let him know about the extra special service I received.