I had a stroke of luck the other day - it cost me damn nearly €600.00

I have been driving for a long time. I think I am right to say that I have been driving since before the first mile of motorway was laid in the UK, let alone on this land.

Anyway, I was driving along one of our own fine new motorways recently, the M7, when my trusty van not only decided to stop but refused to re-start and go further.
It was my first time on this motorway and, because I had been concentrating more on the warning lights than the motorway signs, I was not even sure where I was.

So once the safety triangle was in place I sat myself back in the van, picked up my mobile phone to seek assistance.
But whom to phone and what to ask? I didn't know where I was, let alone the names of recovery companies or mechanics. Sue at home? But how could she help if I didn't know where I was? The garda? - Same problem.

At this moment I saw this image in my rear view mirror.

Now, as I say, I have been driving a long time and I must have driven many tens of thousands of miles on motorways in many countries but never have I had cause to use one of their emergency phones. Indeed, until this, I had assumed that, because of the mobile phone, they had become as nearly obsolete as the phone box on our streets.

So back I walked and pressed the button - there is no handset, just a button and a speaker - and within seconds a voice asked me the nature of my difficulty.
Now, talk about a guardian angel.....
This voice came, I discovered, from the control centre of the local fire service.
She knew where I was, because of the 'phone' I was calling from, and informed me that I was between the Abbeyleix and Portlaoise exits but closer to Portlaoise.
She asked if I had a mobile phone. I did, I said and gave her the number and she said she would call me back. When she did, she told me that the reception was very poor on the emergency system. - a bit of a flaw, wouldn't you think? - and, after all, something of a vindication of the mobile in this situation.
Anyway, she went on to ask me with whom I was insured. I didn't know because I work through a broker and I knew that he had changed the company at the last renewal. So back I went to the van, checked the cert and informed my angel. She went on-line to check for me whether I was covered for breakdown: I wasn't so she connected me to the most local recovery company.

I guess I was on the phone to my saviour for ten to fifteen minutes, as, while she was sorting me out, she was simultaneously receiving emergency calls and despatching and directing the emergency vehicles. And each time she returned to my issues she apologised for having abandoned me, told me not to be worrying and that she would not leave me until all was sorted out!
I will never know who she was, but talk about the right person in the right job: she was multi- tasking at an extraordinary level - receiving, researching and delivering information to at least five different incidents all at the same times, flawlessly.
I remain eternally grateful to her for sorting me out, not only so efficiently but so thoughtfully.

As a consequence of her efforts, within an hour after breaking-down the van was on the back of the recovery truck, I was in its cab and we were both on our way to Portlaoise - as was Sue to collect me.

Next day, van was collected - again by recovery truck - by Campion's Garage, by evening the fault had been diagnosed - the alternator had failed - a replacement had been ordered and by lunchtime the following day I was back on the road.

Oh yes, I said that I had had a stroke of luck.
Why?
Because all this occurred less than three hours, driving time, after I had left the French motorway system...................just imagine......?!