13. That Earlham Professor

One of our craziest family stories about someone going out of their way to help us was the day we took the train to Utah.

It was 1976. And it was my mom, my sister, my brother, and me.

Dad took us to the train station in Columbus. There were not any direct trains, so we were going to Utah by way of Richmond, Indiana  and Chicago.

Did I mention our train would get to Richmond, Indiana at 11 pm? And the train to Chicago left at 6am? We were a hearty lot, so we were not fazed by this plan. Mom had thoughtfully packed pillows and blankets so we could rest in the station until our train came.

So we were off! We caught the train to Indiana as planned and debarked at 11pm. We were all a little groggy, so we looked around for the station, but . . .  there was no station!

The train just dumped us off on the side of the tracks and chugged away into the night.

It may be kind of hard to remember, but life without cell phones was a little different. We had no way to contact anyone.

We took stock of our situation: The terminal was torn down, there were no buildings around, there was no phone booth, there was no shelter of any kind. So we were basically in the middle of nowhere at 11pm at night. Tired, and ready to rest on our cuddly little pillows and blankets.

There was, however, one other person who’d gotten off the train at the stationless stop. An Earlham physics professor. He took one look at us and our suitcases and our pillows and our blankets, and suggested we all get in his car. He would take us home with him.

And he did!

His wife was up when we got there (I can only imagine her surprise!) and they put us to bed on some mattresses they had in an attic room. Wow, actual mattresses! And walls! And a roof! It was heaven.

The next morning they woke us up, fed us breakfast, and drove us back to train. (I would say “train station” but - you know - no station!)

To me, this is such a favorite story because it is so above and beyond the social expectation. It seems an extraordinary leap of generosity. There are so many smaller ways they could have helped, but they went all-in. And I love them for it.

And because of that, we are still telling the story of that amazing Earlham professor and his wife who helped us where we really needed it.