The car was packed as tightly as th

The car was packed as tightly as the Thanksgiving turkey waiting for us at my parents’ houseon Long Island, New York. Everyone, including four children, three of them under six, wasanxious to see grandma and grandpa. My husband had left just the week before. We were restartingour lives. I didn’t know quite how, though. Taking charge wasn’t something I was used to doing. By the time we hit the highway it was snowing and the kids were crying. I concentrated onthe road ahead. All I wanted was to get to my parents’ house, to the family who loved me. By 4: 00 p. m., suddenly the engine died. Luckily we were able to get off the highway andonto the side of the road. I didn’t have a cell phone. “The car won’t start,” I said to Adam, five, andJimmy, 13. “You guys wait here and look after the babies. I’m going out to get some help.” I said, quite confident. I waved my arms at the traffic. Not a single vehicle slowed down. Back when we weretogether, my husband would have taken charge in a situation like this. I would have been in the carwith the kids. Now all they had was me to depend on. I took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the highway. My hands were freezing. Lookingdown through the snow, I couldn’t see a thing but vast white emptiness. Far below, smoke came from a chimney. That meant a house! There it was, in the valleyamong the trees. There was hope. I climbed down the hill. Breathless and covered in snow, I knocked on the door. A womananswered. I stuttered out my story: all alone, kids waiting in the car, trying to get to my parents forThanksgiving, could she help?“You’re lucky,” the woman said. “My son Peter owns a towing (拖车) business,” the womansaid. She turned and called his name. “We’ll get you where you need to go,” he said. “Don’tworry.” And Peter said something that touched me beyond words. Para. 1I returned with a tow truck only minutes after I’d left the children in the car._