A kind petrol attendant named Nelson recently helped grandmother Gail out of quite the pickle after she started having tyre troubles along the highway!
Meadowdale, South Africa (26 May 2025) — In late April, grandmother Gail Erwee found herself in a pickle.
Driving along the highway with her 6-year-old grandson, Gail noticed that something wasn’t right with her car’s wheel. It had started making a noise, and soon, the smell of rubber raised Gail’s alarm bells. But, because of her grandson being in the car, she decided it best not to stop along the highway and push forward to get to a garage to sort out her tyre.
Gail managed to get to a petrol station in Meadowdale. It was a relief that she’d been able to get to some place safer than the highway, but it also begged the question, ‘What to do now?’.
It was at the same petrol station that this question was answered when she encountered the warmth of a petrol attendant named Nelson Ratabane.
Nelson didn’t just have a friendly smile or comfort to offer Gail. Instead, he ended up becoming her knight in green and blue armour.
“Nelson Ratabane, a friendly pump attendant came to my rescue and and assured me that there is no need to wait for help and was prepared to change the flat tyre thus saving us time and money,” Gail tells Good Things Guy.
Thanks to Nelson’s act of kindness, Gail’s tyre troubles were swiftly resolved, and the pickle she was in had become a fond memory.
“I would have had to wait at least half an hour for my husband to come and help me,” Gail reflects. “[Nelson] is an asset to his company and the community.”
People like Nelson remind us that help and hope can find us in the form of strangers. A few minutes of our time, a little stretch of going out of our way, and we might just save someone else’s day.
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