Helping a friend in need. (The Goodness of America).

Timothy McQuarrie owns McQuarrie Auto Engineering in Hanson, Massachusetts. On December 13, 2000, he was working on a car when he noticed that a fire had ignited in a waste oil bucket. He tossed a blanket over the fire, but it was not enough to extinguish the blaze. Flames and smoke forced him to leave the shop, which firefighters were unable to save. The structure was completely destroyed, along with three customers' cars. The vehicles were covered by fire insurance, but the building was not.

McQuarrie recalled for the December 16, 2002 Hanson Express that a fireman had told him, "You'll be back bigger and better." Though McQuarrie did not see how that was possible, he soon found out when customers and neighbors began calling to ask what they could do to help. As described by the Express, "The Saturday following the fire, about 15 people--friends and customers--came early in the morning to help with the clean up. By 3:30 p.m., everything had been cleaned up."

The day after Christmas, the Express recounted, "14 men who had all been customers of McQuarrie's came to rebuild his garage. Some of them remembered stories of times that McQuarrie came and towed their cars in the middle of the night.... These grateful customers wanted to repay the many favors they felt McQuarrie had given to them."

The volunteers "worked four days straight," including nights in sub-freezing temperatures. Some used vacation time at their own jobs so they could help rebuild the shop without delay. The Express story continues: "McQuarrie recalls the last night when snow was predicted for the next day the men worked extra hard to get the roof done."

To help sustain the workers, "the Go-Go's Sub Shop sent lunch one day and many of the women in town brought cookies, brownies, and muffins...." On December 29th, after four days of around-the-clock effort, the project was finished.

On the first anniversary of the new building's completion, McQuarrie threw a party at the shop for those who had come to his rescue. He did so again on the second anniversary last December. The Hanson Express notes that, "thanks to the efforts of McQuarrie's friends, not a single customer was lost," and that the McQuarrie's "have finally come to a point where they are catching up with what they lost in the fife."

The grateful auto technician, recalling the fireman's prediction, describes his new facility as "bigger and better than I ever dreamed it could be." Of the coterie of Good Samaritans, he says: "I owe these guys everything."