Marietta, Ohio — Teresa McCluskey is originally from Willoughby but lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and three children. Her family returned to the Cleveland area on Saturday for vacation, stopping at Interstate 77 in Marietta.
"We stopped in on Friday night due to bad weather. We weren't sure if we could make it this far on the icy roads, so we drove to Marietta on Friday with no problems," says Teresa's husband, Scott. Told. "Then in the morning I thought it would work, but I could only run a mile or two. That's when all the problems happened."
Drexel Perry happened to drive by on Saturday when he noticed his family's SUV parked on the side of the road.
"As I passed by the car, I looked in the rearview mirror and could tell from the steam coming from the engine that the car was either overheating or had a problem with the engine," Perry said. "My concern was how cold it was. They couldn't drive or get out of the cold."
Neither Perry nor Scott knew what was wrong with the truck, so Perry provided this family he had just met with a spare jeep so they could get to the Cleveland area in time for Christmas.
When asked why she felt so comfortable having a family she'd just met drive in their car, Perry said, "I don't know. Maybe what you're feeling about someone is just a gut feeling." is.
"I asked him if he was Santa and I asked if I could give him a hug. I did and I got emotional.
McCluskey's leaves the SUV behind at Marietta, and Perry takes it to the shop to have it fixed on Thursday. The group will then reunite this Saturday to swap cars when the family returns to Charlotte.
“We were so stuck that we didn't have a choice. We just rolled the dice,” says Scott.
The intuition Perry felt about McCluskeys, apparently a mutual feeling, created the Christmas miracle.
"Somehow we felt the same way, but somehow we felt we could trust him," Teresa said. It was a great gift and taught our children great lessons about acts of kindness.”
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