Letters reflect the opinions of their authors and not necessarily those of the Crozet Gazette.
My husband, an Airman who is currently stationed up in Baltimore, was trying to get home for Christmas on Saturday, December 19 – the day the blizzard hit the east coast.
His flight was cancelled in Baltimore and rescheduled in Washington D.C. for later that morning. His friend drove him through the snow to the airport and when my husband arrived to Dulles airport, that flight had also been cancelled. They rescheduled him for another flight the following morning out of Raleigh-Durham airport.
So, my husband rented a car and began his trek down through Virginia. He eventually made it to Charlottesville, but was stopped on the on-ramp to I-64. There, his car got stuck in the snow. Being that his cell phone battery was close to dead and he didn’t have enough power to make emergency calls (even to me), he abandoned his car to try to flag someone down who could help.
Luckily, the Crozet volunteer fire fighters picked him up. They were so unbelievably helpful that they probably saved my husband’s life that day. They took him back to their fire station, where they fed him, let him use their phone to make as many calls as he needed, and even offered to let him stay there if he needed to.
One fire fighter even tried to contact his relative who worked as a tower at a local towing company to see if he could help out my husband. During this time, though, I was able to book my husband a hotel room in Charlottesville, but the fire fighters drove him to the hotel.
The Crozet fire department went above and beyond to help out my stranded husband. I know that they would probably say it was their duty to help out, but they didn’t have to take care of him like they did. They were my Christmas gift that day and I hope everyone takes notice of these type of unsung heroes in their community.
