On Thanksgiving, I was driving through the first snowstorm of the season with my seven-year-old daughter, Emma, when we saw an elderly couple stranded on the highway with a blown-out tire.<\/p>\n
I immediately pulled over.<\/p>\n
While Emma stayed warm in the car, I changed their tire in the freezing cold. The couple, William and Margaret, kept apologizing for the trouble, but I told them it was no big deal.<\/p>\n
Before we left, Emma even gave them a drawing she had made.<\/p>\n
A week later, my mom called me screaming:<\/p>\n
\u201cSTUART! Turn on the TV RIGHT NOW!\u201d<\/p>\n
I switched on the news\u2014and froze.<\/p>\n
There they were.<\/p>\n
William and Margaret weren\u2019t ordinary elderly travelers. William was a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
On live television, they told the story of the stranger who stopped to help them when dozens of other cars drove past.<\/p>\n
Then William announced a $25,000 reward<\/strong> for the man who changed their tire.<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t all.<\/p>\n They also announced a new annual award honoring ordinary people who perform acts of kindness when nobody is watching.<\/p>\n Then Margaret held up Emma\u2019s crayon drawing on national television.<\/p>\n They had kept it on their refrigerator all week.<\/p>\n A few weeks later, Emma and I were invited to Washington, D.C., where she helped light the National Christmas Tree.<\/p>\n The $25,000 went toward Emma\u2019s college fund and repairs to our home.<\/p>\n But years later, Emma still told the story the same way:<\/p>\n \u201cWe would have stopped anyway. That\u2019s just what good people do.\u201d<\/p>\n And she was right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Thanksgiving, I was driving through the first snowstorm of the season with my seven-year-old daughter, Emma, when we saw an elderly couple stranded on the highway with a blown-out tire. I immediately pulled over. While Emma stayed warm in the car, I changed their tire in the freezing cold. The couple, William and Margaret,…<\/p>\n