Stranger's Generosity Saves Teen from Serious Injuries a Day Later

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — A stranger’s kindness couldn’t have been better — and, in a sense, more divinely — timed.

Jared Todd, 13, was riding his bicycle on the Macomb Orchard Trail Saturday when he happened upon a woman waiting for an ambulance. Her bike had been clipped by a car at the trail’s intersection with Van Dyke Avenue and Campground Road in Washington Township.

The woman wasn’t seriously injured, but Jared stopped to chat with her until the ambulance arrived. Jared wasn’t wearing protective headgear, and when the woman asked why, he explained that he had spent his money fixing up a bicycle his grandfather had given him.

The stranger gave him her helmet, a fortuitous move that may not have saved his life but certainly prevented a serious injury, WXYZ-TV reported.

“I didn’t expect her to do that,” Jared told the television station, adding that when she gave him the helmet, “She said, ‘Don’t give this helmet to anyone else. You wear it when you go biking.’ ”

The very next day, Jared crashed his bicycle about 50 yards from where the woman had the accident. He suffered a broken arm, but the helmet — cracked in two places — saved him from a head injury.

He didn’t get the woman’s name at the time, but he and his mother, Joy Todd, want to thank her in person.

“You are my angel,” Jared told the TV station. “Thank you so much.”

Joy Todd says the mystery woman saved her son from a severe head injury.

“I owe her so much,” Joy said. “I am so grateful she did that for my son. ...

“I think God puts people in the right place at the right time for the right purpose.”

Photo by Andrew Malone via Flickr Commons