Lauding Libby for helping out

If your car is going to break down in Northwest Montana, Libby might just be the best place to do it.

The town offered a liberal dose of small-town hospitality to a Washington couple last month.

Sharon and Stuart Stout of Olympia were on their way to Southern Alberta for their grandson’s graduation when they broke down just west of town. With no cellphone service, Sharon set out to flag someone down. The next car that came by stopped. The concerned driver gave the Stouts a lift into town to the Ace Hardware store where an employee in the paint department gave them the number to his own mechanic, and where Stephanie, a customer in the store, quickly offered to take them wherever they needed to go.

Stephanie drove them back to their car to get their suitcases and then to a motel where she wouldn’t leave until she was sure they could get a room for the night.

Meanwhile, the tow truck driver, David from Thompson Falls, hired by the Stouts’ insurance company, towed their car first to the motel so they could get anything else they needed out of it and then to the mechanic — for a reasonable rate.  

Ray at Raycin Automotive then checked out the car, fixed what he could immediately, and drove it back to their motel. He also gave them several options, one of which was leaving the car with him for a couple of days if they wanted to take the train or fly to make their grandson’s graduation.

Although the Stouts didn’t say what they ended up doing, they did see the chain of goodwill that they encountered in Libby as something rare and wonderful in this day and age.

“All in all, these wonderful, caring people made an otherwise bad situation bearable by showing us how good people can be,” they wrote. “We appreciated all their help and kindness.”

I can also attest to the kindheartedness of the folks in Libby. A few years ago our pickup broke down a couple of miles east of town on our way to Sandpoint, Idaho. Just after 5 o’clock on a Friday in July and the temperature was hovering around 98 degrees, our fuel filter clogged and we sputtered to a stop.

The cell service was pretty spotty there and my husband decided to walk up to a house a little way off the highway to try to get ahold of our insurance company to call for a tow truck.

Pretty soon he was waving me to come on up to the house where the owner invited us to wait in his air-conditioned home.

The tow truck arrived and pulled us to Pioneer Auto Wrecking where a few of the guys were still hanging out after work. Fortuitously, the shop had the filter we needed. My husband had some tools and could replace it himself pretty readily, but the guys helped push our truck out of the heat into the shop where he could work on the concrete floor instead of the gravel and even loaned him some tools to make the job go easier.

With their help he changed the filter and we were soon on our way.

Thanks, Libby!

Community editor Carol Marino may be reached at 758-4440 or by email at community@dailyinterlake.com.