Blessed

Robert Ford said he thought people were playing a trick on him when they showed up at his door saying they bought him a car. "I thought they were full of it. I didn't think it was real," he said laughing.

Darilyn and Sean Merrill, a couple who just days earlier were total strangers and gave him a lift home late at night, told him the car was his. "I'm a total stranger and they did this for me. It blows my mind," said Ford.

It all started when the Merrill's were driving home after 9 pm. Near the corner of 5400 South and 2700 West they spotted a man who was walking with a lunchbox in his hand. "He looked like he'd had a rough day," said Sean. Sean told his wife that had she not been in the car, he would offer the man a ride. Darilyn insisted they do it.

At first, Ford refused the ride but reconsidered thinking the couple seemed nice and polite.

On the ride home, they heard Ford's story about a two-hour, one-way commute to his custodian job at high school on the east side of the valley. The commute, he told them, left him with only time for work and sleep. On that day, he was walking because he'd missed his final bus ride.

 

Ford explained he'd had several hardships in life and his car broke down last year. The story touched the newlyweds who had their own struggles with work and finances a year earlier. "We were thinking we are blessed. We have so much," said Darilyn.

Days later, they went back to the neighborhood where they dropped-off Ford and knocked on doors until they found his family. Sean told friends on Facebook that he wanted to buy Robert Ford a car.
"Maybe they saw something in Robert they've experienced in their own lives," said Sean of the donors. Sean , who is a mechanic, bought the car at an auction and went to work fixing the brakes and an oil leak among other things.

 

Five days later, the couple showed up on Robert's doorstep with the car. "We want him to feel like he can succeed and provide for himself," said Darilyn who feels like God put her and her husband in Robert's path. Robert feels like "someone up above" was looking out for him. Nowadays, his 2 hour commute to work has been reduced to about half hour. He's getting a lot more rest these days.

Blessed is the person who sees the need,
recognizes the responsibility, 

 and actively becomes the answer...