Thank goodness for people in our community like Dave Cotton. On a recent Monday morning I drove to the Stop & Shop gas station, filled up the tank and drove away, not remembering I had placed my small wallet, jam-packed with little sheets of paper, credit cards and coupons, on the roof of the car.
Returning home I realized it was not with me, so I rushed back to the gas station only to be told nobody had turned in a lost wallet. I looked all around the area, found no trace, so drove home and walked the distance from my house, searching up and down King Street, through the low scratchy shrubs near the gas station, looking everywhere.
As I was about to return home in despair, I got a phone call from a family member saying that Dave Cotton had left a message on the answering machine saying he had my wallet. An hour later he delivered it to my door. He had seen the wallet on the road near the intersection of the plaza and King Street, stopped for it and noticed all kinds of pieces of paper, money and credit cards scattered down King Street blowing around in the brisk morning breeze.
He insisted on retrieving everything despite numerous honks from annoyed drivers. It really was a gesture of supreme kindness. I was saved so much stress, not to mention time and money, by his act of caring and kindness.
And to make it all the more pleasant, he is the son of my favorite now-deceased tree trimmer, Ed Cotton. What could have been an awful morning turned out to be quite the opposite.
Christina Ryan
Northampton