Over Pesach, my family stayed in a hotel upstate in the Catskills for the first days and some of Chol Haoed. All of us, especially the grandchildren, really enjoyed it. Alas, it came time to embark on our trip home for the second days where other family members were going to join us, though we were looking forward to that as well.
My husband went to get our fairly new car and the car wouldn’t start. We called hotel security and they brought booster cables, to no avail. I had to call my insurance company as we have a repair service contract with them. They informed us, as they usually do, that they would call the closest gas station and we would receive a phone call from there. From past experience, we knew this would involve waiting an hour or so for help to arrive. The service station employee would then tow the car to the station and attempt to fix the problem. Chances were we would have to stay another night, with an added expense for the hotel, assuming rooms were still available.
It suddenly occurred to me, “Let me call Chaverim. Maybe one of them are close by.” It turned out a family from Boro Park had rented a house in Swan Lake, also upstate, to give their kids a treat for Chol Hamoed. But even further to our amazement, the young man from Chaverim was right in our hotel, where he had come to pay to use the golf course. We didn’t even have to wait for him to come from Swan Lake, about a half-hour drive away! He came immediately, and yes, he was able to boost the car with his cables, as he probably had more experience with that than the hotel security guard.
We were fortunate to start our trip home. What a thrill to call the insurance company and advise them, “Please cancel my service call.” I guess Chaverim are truly that – friends, and Hashem was surely watching over us. We can’t say enough times, “Mi k’amcha Yisrael.” We are so fortunate to be part of a special group of people, yidden, who have organizations for everything, from Bikur Cholim to Hatzolah, Tomchei Shabbos to a myriad of other organizations too numerous to describe…
May they continue doing their amazing chesed, and may we be zocheh to not need them!