Just when we need a bit of good news

I can’t stand to read the news anymore.

Too disheartening.

Is there anyone out there besides me who simply can’t take the daily drowning in bad news?

If there anyone besides me who needs some make-you-feel good news to break through all the doom and gloom?

I used to like the fast capsule news summaries on Yahoo. I can skim it in a few minutes and at least know what’s going on in the world.

But I can’t do it anymore. Too much negative, negative, negative.

Finally, last week I read a first-person story by someone named Tawny Nelson. In case you missed it, what follows is her story as told by Frank Somerville of KTVU.

“This is Tawny Nelson with three of her four kids.

She just told me about what happened to her in Florida. And how a 74-year-old man knocking on the window of her truck has helped restore her faith in people.

(I swear I got chills when I read what happened next.)

Here’s what she wrote to me:

I am the single mother of four absolutely beautiful little girls.

They are 9, 5, 2 and 6 weeks.

Things have been particularly rough since my ex left.

My truck had a flat I constantly had to air up. The driver side window motor died. And I needed a new alternator belt.

The truck was a mess. We didn’t drive anywhere unless we had to.

Well, the other day we desperately needed to go to the store. So we loaded up and drove to the Winn Dixie about nine blocks away.

When we got to the store it was after dark. And pouring rain.

I loaded my kids and groceries into the truck. Tried to crank it. … Nothing.

No click. Nothing.

One of my girls had accidentally left a light on. The battery was dead. My phone was disconnected.

I have no family to speak of and was on my own.

I got out and opened my hood to be sure my battery hadn’t come loose. Nope.

I must have asked more than 20 people in the course of two hours for a jump. They all ignored me.

Not even a no. Just acted like I didn’t exist.

My 5-year-old was melting down. My newborn was screaming and my 2-year-old was crying she was hungry. My oldest tried desperately to help.

I was bawling and felt like the worst mom ever.

Then I got a knock on the passenger window.

An older gentleman (he was 74, with a cane and a bad limp) was on the other side of that knock.

When I opened the door he handed me a plate of chicken strips and biscuits from the deli and bottles of water.

“Feed those babies and yourself, young lady. I have a tow truck on the way and my wife will be here shortly to take y’all home.”

Sure enough she arrived, followed by the tow truck. We and our truck were taken home.

The next morning the gentleman returned to my house with a mechanic who replaced my battery and alternator and fixed my window.

The elderly gentleman then left and did not return.

When I asked what I owed the mechanic and if I could make payments, he smiled, telling me the older man had paid for all of it.

He said that the only payment the older man wanted was for me to never give up and keep being an amazing mom.

I never cried so hard in my life.

Things had been absolutely awful. More so than I care to explain.

And without knowing us or our situation, this kind man helped us in ways he will never know.

What he did revived my faith when I was falling apart. But he wouldn’t even take a hug.

I’ll never be able to thank him. But I certainly hope one day I can do what he did for me for someone else.”

The reporter noted he hoped the 74-year-old man who helped her sees her letter. He also vowed he, too, was going to do something to make a difference like that.

There’s a good chance the man might see his story because it’s gone viral all over the Internet.

After she drew national attention because of her story, Tawny Nelson contacted Frank Somerville at KTVU to say she didn’t tell her story for personal gain. All she wants, she said, is for others to pay in forward by helping someone.

I Googled Frank Somerville to learn more about him and was glad I did. His Facebook page has several uplifting stories. It’s fairly obvious that’s the kind of story he likes to tell.

That’s good news for the rest of us who are tired of “man’s inhumanity to man” stories.

We want to hear the good things everyday people do — things that aren’t big enough to make the daily news but are big enough to change someone’s life.

My belief is there are plenty of people out there like the elderly man who helped Tawny and her family. We just don’t hear about them. If there were more sites like Frank’s Facebook page, I’m sure we would.

He also calls attention to two related sites — staykind and gooutandmakeadifferencetoday.

If you like positive thoughts, check them out for yourself.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.