Canadians may take the kindness of strangers for granted, but a P.E.I. woman who moved to this country from China two years ago wants people to know how grateful she is to have chosen Canada as her home.
On Dec. 12, Irene Zhang had just finished her shift at Aspin Kemp and Associates in Stratford around 9:30 p.m. and was ready to go home to Montague, where she moved a year ago.
She started her car and scraped the snow off with a brush as it warmed up.
When she tried to get back in the car, it had locked.
“When this happened, I was really scared. (There were) no people (around),” said Zhang, who is originally from Beijing.
It was snowing and she had no winter coat in the below-freezing temperatures.
Zhang tried to think of a phone number that could help and all she could think of was “911”.
She called 911.
“Sorry this is not an accident,” she said she told by the operator, who then attempted to connect Zhang with a tow company. But Zhang was in for another setback.
“My phone died and I (didn’t) know if they found someone or not,” she said.
Her fears mounting, Zhang walked to a nearby road to try to flag down a passing vehicle.
She wasn’t sure if she would get anyone because P.E.I. is not nearly as busy as Beijing.
“If in China, we’d have a lot of people passing by that can help you at any time. But here, not much people,” she said.
Luckily, it only took a few short minutes before the first passing car stopped.
Two men, one in about his 30s and the other in his 50s, asked Zhang what they could do to help. They let her in their vehicle to warm up and drove back to Zhang’s car in the company parking lot.
“You are safe,” they told her.
They called a tow company for her and let her stay in their warm vehicle until it arrived.
When the tow truck came, the driver told Zhang the company had been looking for her because the 911 operator had contacted them as well.
By the time Zhang was back in her car, it was covered in snow again.
Before Zhang could dust it off, the two men brushed the snow off for her.
“We want to see you are good,” she said they told her.
Zhang offered the strangers money for their efforts, but both men refused to take it.
“I was moved deeply with tears,” she said.
Zhang said she had a similar experience in Nova Scotia when she first came to Canada two years ago.
She said she is moved by the kindness of Canadian strangers and asked this newspaper to spread the message about how grateful she is to her new country.
“I feel very thankful,” she said. “I feel very welcomed and I really feel at home here.”