The Shoveling Samaritan Works Here!

The bus stops right outside the shop. During that last heavy snowfall, people getting on or off the bus had to climb over a perilous mountain of snow and significant pile-up of slush. We try to do our civic duty when we can. This time one of our people has earned the sobriquet "the shoveling Samaritan." Here's the piece that lead off yesterday's Metropolitan Diary in the New York Times.

DEAR DIARY:

As I climbed a multi-foot snowbank in late February to wait for the uptown M7 bus, I noticed a thin, middle-aged woman wearing an open jacket and no gloves, shoveling snow away from the submerged curb.

She was wearing what appeared to be a Metropolitan Transportation Authority-issue shirt underneath, with the colored circles of various bus and train routes.

Me: “I can’t believe they make you do this, with no gloves either! I have enough problems with the M.T.A. as it is.”

Woman: “Oh, I don’t work for the M.T.A.”

I motioned to her T-shirt. She opened her jacket more so I could better see: the colored circles were part of a design that spells something out.

Woman: “This? This is my New York City Marathon T-shirt. I work in there [she pointed to the flower shop behind the bus stop] in the basement, and I was just so hot!” Dan Heching