Regaining Faith
In Humankind

I love living in small town Vermont. Sometimes something happens that renews faith. Need a renewal of faith in fellow human beings? Read on.

I had two incidents happen within one week, each of which could have been much worse than they were. The first was about three weeks ago, the day of the severe thunderstorms and record amounts of rain. That morning I was headed north on Route 12A, probably halfway to Roxbury. Being summer I had all my car windows open and started hearing a very strange flopping kind of noise. I had a flat tire.

There were no houses around and I had no cell phone coverage in that valley. I turned around to head back to Randolph, hoping I could limp along if I drove real slow. That worked for awhile until the tire came off the rim and I was driving on the rim.

I pulled over and the good soul following me immediately pulled over and gave me a ride to town. Just a few hours later, when the thunder and lightning and torrential downpour of rain came, I was so grateful to be in a safe place—thanks to one of our Kimball librarians.

The following week I was driving through Barnard and stopped at the Barnard General Store for ice cream. Unbeknownst to me I left my wallet on the picnic bench right next to the lake. Didn’t miss it until sometime the next day when I panicked as I had no idea where it was.

Meanwhile, a young girl about nine years old turned the wallet back to the store. Several phone calls were made by a person at the store, finally calling Vermont Technical College, since I have a VTC card. Someone at VTC in turn left a message for me that my wallet was at the Barnard Store.

When I arrived there later that day to retrieve my wallet, it was just sitting on a shelf behind the counter, completely intact. The person who put it on the shelf knew it would be safe there and it was.

I am really grateful for the basic goodness and godness that small town America brings out in people. Thanks so much to everyone who helped especially the nine-year-old girl, visiting from out of state, who found my wallet and did the right thing with it.

Nancy Nicholas

Randolph