Il n’y aura pas de complaining in this column. I don’t have a shirt to tear today. Slice of life column.
It was January 9th and Sylvie Patenaude was driving up Saint-Denis towards the Metropolitan, heading home to Anjou.
But her car was making a strange noise: “I’m telling you, I hit at least four potholes that day…”
Ms. Patenaude decided to inspect her car before getting on the freeway. Turn on Crémazie, turn on Berri, she was sure there was a garage nearby, but she couldn’t find one. She parked in front of a bus, got out of her car…
It didn’t take long to find the cause of the noise bothering Sylvie Patenaude in the cabin of her old Hyundai Accent inherited from her late mother: one of the tires had been punctured by a pothole…
She called her boyfriend. Darling, come pick me up, I got a flat tire, you have the CAA card…
“Then, I went to see the bus driver,” Ms. Patenaude told me, he was on break. I knocked on his window…”
The driver opened it.
“Do you know where there’s a garage around here, sir?”
– Sorry, no. Why?
– I got a flat tire…
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE
Carlos Diaz, in front of his bus
The STM driver then got out of his massive vehicle, he inspected the damage and asked Sylvie Patenaude to open her trunk. Then, he simply took out the spare tire and proceeded to install it in place of the flat tire…
No gloves, just his STM jacket, it was cold, there!
Sylvie Patenaude
The driver seemed to know how to change a tire, Ms. Patenaude related, she couldn’t believe this stranger coming to her aid: “It didn’t take ten minutes!”
Once the spare tire was installed by the Samaritan driver, Sylvie Patenaude wanted to thank him, she offered him money, to no avail: repeated refusal from the driver.
“He just told me his name was Carlos, Carlos Diaz… I was in shock, Mr. Lagacé, all day I was grateful, I thought to myself: STM drivers do this?! So that night, I tracked down his boss, I wrote to him to highlight Mr. Diaz’s good deed, but with a little fear, still, I was afraid that he would be punished for taking the time to help me, you know how bosses can be sometimes… The boss reassured me: no, no, we won’t punish him, we’ll submit his name for end-of-year merit awards. And then, well, I wrote to tell you my story…”
I loved this story, but being bound by the highest standards of Canadian-French journalism professionalism, I still had to validate if this story was true, so I contacted my hidden sources at the STM (okay, no, in fact, I contacted the media relations department) asking to be put in touch with driver Carlos Diaz…
Boom, shortly after, I was on the phone with Mr. Diaz and his sunny accent (forgive the cliché) from Colombia, his native land.
“I saw the tire on the ground and I asked the lady, ‘Are you equipped?’ It was cold, yes, but I did it, it only took me a few minutes. She wanted to give me money, I said, ‘No, madam, it’s my pleasure, have a good day!'”
It turns out that Mr. Diaz, who arrived in the country in 2008, has been a bus driver at the STM for six years. His training: music. He was a conductor, he also teaches the violin. Mechanics? He practically grew up in a garage: “My father was a mechanic…”
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE
Carlos Diaz has been a bus driver at the STM for six years.
Helping is in our man’s fibers. A bit like a superhero who always carries his cape in his BIXI basket, Carlos Diaz carries an autonomous car battery in his car, to be able to recharge those of motorists in need.
My wife, when she sees a car broken down, often says to me, “Don’t look, we have to get to our destination!” She thinks I help people too much…
Carlos Díaz
But still, Mr. Diaz, you didn’t have to go out and help this stranger, Ms. Patenaude, while you were waiting to resume service on line 135, but you did it without hesitation, in the cold, and all…
Why?
“I’m happy to be able to help. It comes from my mother, from my father. I’m Latino, we help each other. We do what our parents taught us, you know…”
I was going to say that we need more Carlos Diaz, but I take it back: Carlos Diaz are everywhere, they are among us, they do good every day. It’s just that we almost never see them in the newspapers, newspapers lack slices of life.
#pneu #crevé #Presse
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