There are two kinds of people in this world: People who are good during emergencies and people who aren’t.
Tim Arndt is great during emergencies. I am not.
I’ve been in multiple situations where an emergency was happening and Tim calmly took charge and made everything better. There was the time I pushed on our back door to close it and my hand went through the glass, slicing my thumb open. While I stood there screaming for someone to call 911, Tim calmly rinsed me off, held my hand together to minimize the bleeding, and got me to the ER in seconds flat. When it was time to get the stitches off weeks later, I lost patience waiting on the official person to come remove the stitches, so Tim removed them for me.
Before we were married, I threw my back out and was essentially paralyzed from the waist down out of pain, and Tim calmly pulled the Suburban up to the side of the house and carried me to the car to take me to the hospital. Before we left, I cried because I needed to go to the bathroom, so Tim brought a Tupperware bowl to my bedside and created a makeshift bedpan. I knew at that point that if he could see me in that state and still love me, I’d found the right guy.
Today, I was winding up work when my daughter ER calmly informed me that Tim, who was at the grocery store, was helping someone who’d “just had a wreck.” Tim is always helping people with car trouble, but this time, ER received a photo on SnapChat from a friend who witnessed Tim at the scene of the accident. It’s very weird to get this kind of information via social media, so ER and I grabbed a few cold drinks from the fridge, and headed walking in the direction of the grocery store near our house.
As we walked up to the store, you could see ambulances and police cars and there, right in front of the garden area at the front of the store, a car flipped on its side. The first thing I wanted to know was how in the world does a car flip in the parking lot of a grocery store?
By the time we got there, Tim was already in the car, so we flagged him down and hopped inside to hear the story. Tim was walking out of the store with his cart, and looked over to see a car flip on its side. Just like that. From there, Tim abandoned his cart and ran over to assess things. A man about Tim’s age was in the driver’s seat, and Tim guesses that the man had a seizure. The car flipped because it hit a tree and the elasticity of the tree popped the car over on its side. It was a super freakish, super weird situation.
The driver’s side was on the ground, so Tim and the HEB security guard and another few people worked to break the window to check on the guy driving the car while the ambulance and EMS people arrived. The driver was disabled, so a petite female HEB employee jumped in the car to try to get the man out, but he was too weak to move. At one point, a few kids were standing around, so Tim took the time to explain what you do in these situations. You look for fuel, because if fuel is leaking there’s a danger of fire. You assess the victim. You make sure someone calls 911. You keep calm.
So that’s what my hero of a husband did today. He kept calm and stayed around until the professionals arrived. When I thanked him for stopping and praised him for yet another hero moment, he shrugged and said, “It’s just what you do.”
Except it’s not what everyone would do. Some people like me would call 911 and panic while explaining the situation. Some people would stand there taking pictures. Some would keep on walking. Not Tim Arndt. He’s there when you need him, and I’m so thankful for that.
