Last week when we were still ankle-deep in snow, before the subsequent thaw-and-melt, we were driving locally, turned a corner just after one of those sidewalk plows had passed, and inadvertently drove over a large chunk of ice and snow that had been shoved from the sidewalk by the plow onto the road. We assumed that it would be crushed under the car wheels, thinking it was just comprised of hard snow, but we reckoned wrong.

Driving, my husband could feel something that shouldn't be there, and there was a bit of a clunking sound as we drove along. When he stopped to peer under the right-front wheel well he saw that a large chunk of snow-covered ice had lodged itself in the wheel cavity. He struggled to pry it free and was finally successful. But he also discovered that it had caused some damage.

Because the hard ice had been trapped in the wheel well what it had done was to detach the lining of the fender and my husband anticipated that it would have to be replaced at the cost of hundreds of dollars. So a few days later he made an appointment at a local body shop to get an estimate from them of what it would take to repair the damage. It was a place that my husband had used once before, years ago.

Despite which, the woman who operates the front desk recognized him. And after the shop gave a cursory look at the car, she gave him an appointment for the following Thursday, to come along just after 8:30, and it would take them no more than 20 minutes to repair; a simple job, she said, to reattach the lining. There was no need whatever, she said for a replacement.

When my husband asked for the estimated cost, she laughed and said 'nothing', no charge. My husband protested, that at the very least a reasonable charge for the job would be expected. To charge nothing was unheard-of. She patted his hand and said it was a trifle, just forget about it. So on the day in question he took the Mazda in for its scheduled repair, and sure enough it was done in 20 minutes while my husband waited in their comfortable little courtesy waiting room.

Again, complete refusal to charge, and my husband expressed his profuse appreciation for their generosity in time and expertise. A few hours later he went out to our local Loblaws Superstore to buy one of their huge decorated Black Forest cakes and delivered it to the body shop; a gesture of appreciation.