Kaplan Woman Thanks Those Who Stopped to Help on Highway 14

UPDATE: BROWN FAMILY REACHES OUT

After this story was posted, we received a message from Whitney Brown and one from her stepdaughter. Here is what they had to say:

In the original post, I had assumed that Brown lived in Abbeville, but she whipped out that Jolly Roger flag in a heartbeat!

Brown's stepdaughter left a comment as well, saying she is grateful for the people of Abbeville who stopped to help, and that she is very proud of her parents, too:

Here's the original story (with the "Kaplan" correction:

A Kaplan woman recently posted a "Thank You" to the people who stopped to help her and her husband on Highway 14 in Abbeville.

Whitney Brown calls those people who stopped to help "Angels", as there's no way she and her husband could have done it alone.

What was "it"? "It" was a load of large pieces of wood that had spilled off of their trailer and onto the roadway near the Vermilion River Bridge.

According to Brown's story, she and her husband were driving across the "old" Vermilion River Bridge (near Saint Mary Magdalen Church) when the trailer of wood they were hauling detached from the trailer hitch and spilled onto the roadway.

The couple pulled off of the roadway and then tried to gather the boards themselves, but the task proved to be daunting for them due to their age (by her own admission, the couple is in their late 60s).

The load was quite large, consisting of 31 6-inch boards that were each 12 feet long so, as she said, it would have been difficult for them to quickly clear the roadway.

This is where Brown's angels come into the picture:

Many folks, including 2 women, stopped to help us. Several trucks blocked traffic both ways and then everyone jumped to move these heavy boards as quickly as possible. I don't think traffic was held up more than 10 minutes. It was a miracle! - Whitney Brown, Facebook

Brown said that several people got out of their vehicles to help clear the roadway (Highway 14 at that point is a 2-lane road) and carry the boards down the embankment into the old Riverfront parking lot. She couldn't believe that people were so eager to help.

You were all ANGELS! Restoring my belief that every person, given the chance, will help when people are in need. The acts were immediate and very coordinated. Everyone was so sweet and after it was all over, my husband and I could not believe what just happened. - Whitney Brown, Facebook

Brown says that traffic was held up for less than 10 minutes due to the help they received, with 2 women and at least 8 men helping clear up the spill.

In the Facebook post, Brown thanks her anonymous angels, and then reveals that one of the women helping did give her name: Angelica. Brown found her name to be very fitting!

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ANNONYMOUS ANGELS! You have absolutely no idea how much you mean to us, and you have been a big topic of conversation ever since. MAY GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!!! You touched our hearts deeply! You certainly blessed us! - Whitney Brown, Facebook

Stories like these happen all the time, but we just don't hear about them enough. I am glad that Brown posted this to the Vermilion Parish Updates page so that I could share it with the world. If more people would share stories like these, it would probably encourage others to try to lend a hand more often.

This story resonated with me, as it did with many on Facebook:

Angela Bernard said it well with "There are still good people in this world."

Rhonda echoed that thought, saying she chooses to believe that there are more good people in the world.

Brook Stelly says that the world needs to hear more of these stories.

I was hoping to find someone in the comments section that would take credit for helping clean up the road, but none revealed themselves.

Krystal Naumann posted a powerful meme about kindness to the comments section that I wish everyone would read.

And, finally, Brown herself chimed in on the comments section and showed us what kind of woman she is: she and her husband were helping to build a deck for his first wife. Here she is thanking everyone for their kindness when she appears to be one of the kindest of them all.

Whitney, thank you for sharing your story as it's important to let others know that there is still some humanity out there. Also, to those who stopped to help: thanks for making me proud to be from Abbeville!