(CNN) –– When a delivery girl’s car began to slide down an ice-covered road amid the storm in Texas, the driver closed her eyes. At that moment he prayed that the car did not hit the client’s house.
It did not collide with the house. But, Chelsea Timmons’ car crushed a flower bed outside a home in Austin, Texas, as a blizzard paralyzed the state last Sunday. She didn’t know yet, but she would soon be grateful to end up at the entrance to this particular house.
Chelsea Timmons made her last grocery delivery during the Texas storm and says she felt lucky to have found this Austin couple.
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Owners Doug Condon and Nina Richardson came out to make sure Timmons was okay and to try and help his Toyota Rav4 up the driveway. However, he was stuck. So, they invited her to wait for a crane inside their house.
“I am extremely lucky that it was here that my car crashed,” Timmons told CNN. ‘He was in his flower bed. It was not in a ditch. I was not on the side of the road … I was trapped in a safe and warm place, “she said.
The bad weather persisted much longer than any of them expected. Five days later, Timmons was still living with the couple.
Since Sunday, Texas faces a fierce storm that left cities without electricity, without water and without heat. What affected millions of people who are not used to this type of cold.
Amid the stories of people struggling to survive, some hopeful cases show that hospitality in Texas is genuine.
Timmons lives in Houston, three hours away. But, he explained that he makes weekly trips to Austin because the delivery business there pays a little more. The 32-year-old picked up one last delivery Sunday as the snow increased. I thought I would have time to get home.
Waiting for a tow truck that never came through the storm in Texas
Timmons found himself at the end of a long, snowy driveway.
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The delivery girl had had trouble driving at noon in the mountainous neighborhood and being able to carry groceries. The delivery of the products was already one day late. Plus, the purchase included steaks for the couple’s planned Valentine’s Day dinner.
“I was coming down very slowly, remembering to hit the brakes,” Timmons recounted from his hosts’ home in Austin. “I stepped more aggressively and it just kept sliding. My heart skipped a beat as I slipped straight into her house. I closed my eyes and prayed that I didn’t hit these people’s house, that I didn’t damage my car. I just knew, definitely knew, that if I hit his house, that would be my tip. “
She texted the couple to let them know that she was there with her purchases and that she was trapped.
Condon got out and they tried to get the car up the steep driveway. Timmons said she tried to wait in her car and call the American Automobile Association (AAA) to request a tow truck, but Condon invited her in.
By making contactless deliveries, Timmons was used to sanitizing before and after leaving the products. In addition to wearing a mask and keeping your distance, he said.
“I was invited in and of course at the time I was very uncomfortable entering a stranger’s house. But they were very nice, “he said. “When they invited me in, I sat with my mask in their kitchen for about two hours.”
Timmons kept calling for updates on the tow truck and went back to his car to wait. A few hours later, the towing service said it could not get to the area safely due to the storm, the delivery girl said.
“As soon as we learned that AAA couldn’t come and conditions were getting worse, it seemed silly to even imagine that she would go to a hotel,” Richardson said. “We didn’t even think of that.”
Richardson and Condon had received their first injection of the COVID-19 vaccine a week earlier, as part of phase 1B. The couple said they weren’t going to let Timmons stay in his car in the cold.
Day turned into night and soon dinner came. It was Valentine’s Day and the couple made a steak with blue cheese, broccoli, and salad. It was a much better meal than Timmons imagined he would receive that night, he said.
The dogs Haddie and Crosby spent time with Timmons.
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“This was definitely not how I expected to spend Valentine’s Day,” Timmons laughed. “We had a great dinner and I sat down, I was hot, they fed me. And it was just amazing. I thought it would be just for one night, but here I am, on the fifth.
Meanwhile, Timmons learned that his Houston apartment had lost power. If he had actually made it home, it would have been just being there without electricity.
Every day, they monitored the weather. Also, Timmons and Condon were trying to make progress with the car. They cleared small parts of the driveway and tried to back up little by little, little by little.
“We were using a broom and shovel so we could clear the driveway as best we could,” Condon said. We thought we had cleared it enough for her to get out. It reached the middle and got stuck, ”he added.
She tried to leave but the hosts insisted that she stay
Every time Timmons suggested leaving the house and looking for a hotel room somewhere, the couple worried about the situation they would find themselves in.
“‘Our guest room is better than the Hampton Inn,'” Timmons recalled the couple telling him. «’If you go, what are you going to eat? Are you sure you can get there all the way? ‘
As the days passed, the group became more and more friendly. And it seemed like Timmons was a guest staying in the couple’s guest room.
“I baked a cake to show my gratitude!” Said Timmons.
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“We’ve had an exciting week with crazy weather and a surprise guest, which turned out to be quite a pleasant experience,” said Condon.
The couple’s dogs, Crosby and Haddie, soon began to sit on Timmons’s bed and snuggle up next to her.
“She became kind of a part of the family very quickly,” Richardson explained.
Timmons helped the couple prepare food. Someone boiled the pasta and someone else made the other parts of the meal, Richardson said.
Timmons made a coconut cake to thank the couple. “We were definitely the beneficiaries of their baking,” Condon said.
Condon and Richardson hope that others have done the same for a stranger in need of help.
“We hope that if our daughters were in a similar situation to Chelsea, there would be someone who would treat them as we treat Chelsea,” Condon said. “I don’t think we thought twice.”
The couple and Timmons shared that they plan to keep in touch. On Friday, the weather cleared and Timmons made it to Houston safely on a sunny day with clear roads.
“I am so grateful that they not only could, but also wanted to let a complete stranger into their home, in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a storm … without hesitation,” Timmons said. “They just opened their doors, opened their house and said, ‘Come and relax.’
“I am so grateful for them and so glad that it was here, of all the gateways in the world, where I ended up,” she said.
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