Winter Angels

With bitter cold weather and snow hammering the usual northern cities but also places that don’t know how to handle icy roads, the “Polar Vortex” of 2014 brought out the best in businesses and citizens who wanted to help strangers who were stranded. A Pennsylvania pizza shop owner contacted the media to advertise his willingness to make deliveries of prescriptions or food to the elderly and disabled. After 39 inches of snow (100 cm) stranded cars near Tokyo, the driver of a bakery truck decided, since the delivery could not likely be completed by the sell-by date, he would give away all the pastries and breads to those stuck on the roadway. Snow blowing gangs of men in Detroit and a Missouri 12-year-old cleared the way for the elderly and a hero in Illinois was driving around jump-starting cars for free. Sweetest of all, Atlanta residents hearing reports of stranded motorists, brought hot cocoa and sandwiches to stunned drivers.