BLESSING IN DISGUISE

‘I just made your day a whole lot worse’, I heard him say as I saw steam coming from the opened hood of the car. Just the words I wanted to hear, I thought, enveloped in an air of sarcasm.

‘Did you burn yourself?’, I asked. He assured me he did not get burned as I hadn’t driven the car for too long to heat up the water in the radiator. I was simply returning the battery I used during the weekend and was having the new one installed. The one I had picked up from the other car shop earlier this morning, as it was still under warranty.

He was not the mechanic but thought he could quickly install the new battery for me and get me on my way home. As he replaced the battery, his pinky finger caught on the radiator hose which easily came undone. Apparently, the hose had been leaking and it would have been a matter of time until the radiator erupted in steam and potentially destroyed the engine.

‘It’s a good thing this happened here’, I heard the mechanic say.

It was supposed to be a quick five or so minutes and then I would be on my way home to enjoy breakfast with my son. With no school today, I wanted to surprise him with donuts from Angel Donuts. Something we rarely get. Perhaps two or three times a year.

I had no choice but to leave the car and wait for the phone call letting me know the next steps. I was driven home by the shop’s driver and continued with my Monday.

I heard a gasp coming from the balcony where I had set up our breakfast on the ground.

‘Thank you! Thank you! I love donuts!’, my son came into my room and hugged me. We sat down and enjoyed our breakfast.

The call came later in the morning letting me know my car was ready and that this was a blessing in disguise. Exactly the words I was thinking during breakfast. Even better was the fact that I was charged only $35 for the part needed, with no costs of labour for the installation.

Monday turned out just fine. I know there will be many more issues with the car, but I will take them as they come. One at a time. I finished my work then prepared tacos for us to eat by the pool in the evening.

Sometimes things happen for reasons not yet seen. We might think them to be unfair and inconvenient, but we need to learn to see the bigger picture and lessons we can learn from them.