“Go to Work Now!” Ensign, Feb. 2002, 68–71
Go to Work Now!
When the alarm clock went off at one o’clock on a cold Monday morning in January, Bart Love hit the snooze button. His work shift didn’t start for three hours, but he planned to go in early, as he often did, to do paperwork. But now, in his warm, comfortable bed, he thought he would wait just a while longer before getting up. Then a strong feeling came over him that he should get up and go to work now. So by 1:30 he was on the road.
It was a foggy morning, and the icy roads were especially slick after a recent rainfall and freezing temperatures. Thinking how awful it would be to slide off the road in this kind of weather, Bart drove carefully, trying to keep track of his location just in case he did go off the road.
As he came upon a particularly icy portion of road that went over a bridge, he noticed some lights off to the right. Looking more closely, he realized he was seeing the taillights of someone’s car sticking up out of the water!
He pulled his truck as far off the side of the road as he dared and got out. After checking the depth of the freezing water with a stick, he walked waist deep to the vehicle and called out to anyone who might be there. A teenage girl’s voice answered. She said she was trapped in the car. The car was upside down in the water, and she had managed to find about a five-inch air pocket in the backseat area. The windows were broken and the doors jammed. Bart tried but could not open a door to get her out. He told her he would quickly go to a nearby house to call for help and then be right back.
After asking someone at the nearest home to phone for emergency help, he returned to the girl to wait with her in the freezing water. Unable to see her in the darkness, Bart held her hand through the broken window and continued to talk to her, hoping to keep her calm and conscious. He avoided asking direct questions about what had happened or how long she had been there. She answered each of his questions and continually thanked him for finding her.
When rescue units arrived to help the girl out of the car, Bart slipped away and returned home for a quick shower and dry clothes before heading off again to work. He later learned that the paramedics who had responded to the emergency call said the girl’s body temperature had been so low that she would not have survived another 20 minutes in the freezing water. As it was, she walked away with no permanent damage to her body.
The girl and her parents were very grateful that Bart had found her when he did, and he was grateful that he had heeded the prompting not to delay but to go into work—now.