Bridgeport’s Aimee Shull is an upbeat individual. Talk to her for a little bit and you can quickly tell that she’s more of a glass half full than empty person.

 

In fact, when you ask her about that attitude, she’s quick to tell you that she’s far from a person that has given up on humanity.

 

“I always try to be positive and have a positive attitude. If someone needed me for something in a very serious manner – and it was someone I didn’t know – I’d like to believe I would react,” said Shull. “I believe there’s more good than bad out there in the world.”

 

If Shull had any doubts they were erased the evening of March 2. In fact, it may have not only enhanced her belief in the inherent good of the human spirit, but led her to belief that she has a guardian angel too.

 

Ironically, what led to all of this came on an evening wasn’t unlike many other that she, her husband Tom and her son Gabe – a sixth grade student at Bridgeport Middle School – has been involved with in recent years.

 

“I had just left a doctor’s appointment with my son at UHC,” said Shull. “My husband messaged me to meet him at (Buffalo Wild Wings at Charles Pointe) for dinner. We went there and had a nice evening as several of my son’s friends were there.”

 

After dinner, the Shull family headed home. Tom, in one car, was the first to leave. Aimee was next and still had her son with her.

 

“We all kind of left at the same time and I was in the back of a group of cars,” she said.

 

To this point, there was nothing too unusual. But all of that would change when Shull decided to head home off of Jerry Dove Drive on State Route 131 instead of going toward Interstate 79 and getting back to Bridgeport that way.

 

“I almost never go on 131. I’m never in that area other that when I run to the Recreation Complex, but if I’m on the road for that I’m heading in from Oliverio’s,” she said.

 

At around 7:45 p.m. on this cold and blustery evening, she was in the car and talking to her son about wrapping the evening up. All that stood between her and home was a stretch of 131 and her own backstreets to navigate.

 

She wouldn’t get there in her car.

 

“It was basic conversation; brushing his teeth and making sure his homework would be done so he would be ready for bed,” said Shull. “Then it happened.”

 

What happened would prove to one of the most frightening events of Aimee Shull’s life. Her vehicle, a Chevrolet Trailblazer, suddenly hit a patch of black ice.

 

“The back end of the blazer went into the left lane. It was like a sling shot and just happened out of nowhere,” she said. “We fish tailed and I actually thought the car came back together for a second because I can remember my son and me looking at each other.”

 

Unfortunately, the ordeal was just beginning. A split second later, the car was sliding again. This time, the ice threw the vehicle into the bank along the roadway.

 

“I’m not sure how far we traveled once we hit the bank, but I know it flipped us and we slid on the hood of our car,” said Shull. “Finally we came to a stop and I can remember quickly thinking how thankful I was that we were both wearing our seatbelts.”

 

Of course, her thought process immediately raced to her son who was already reassuring her.

 

“He said ‘mom, I’m okay.’ I told him not to move and just remember how dark and quiet it was and I suddenly became scared because I knew we had hit ice and someone else could hit the same ice and hit us,” she said. “It seemed like it was a few minutes before I heard someone in the distance.”

 

A man had approached. He checked to see if the Shulls were okay and they let him know that they were okay.

 

“He told us that cars had stopped in both lanes and that was an immediate relief and then I undid my seatbelt and kind of fell out onto the roof,” said Shull. “The man opened the back door because the front doors were smashed in. He asked me if there was anyone else in the car besides me and I told him my son was in the car.”

 

With her son in the passenger seat, and with her believing they were a bit disoriented over the entire situation, she asked her son if he was ready to get out. He was.

 

“I told him I was going to undo his seatbelt and he came down too. The man got me out and then helped my son out and I just grabbed my son and held him,” said Shull.

 

Immediately, a call was placed to 911. Another woman who came to the scene handed Aimee Shull her phone so she could call her husband – who had minutes earlier safely navigated the same stretch – and let him know that they were okay, but they had an accident.

 

“He turned around and came right away and I couldn’t wait for him to get there, but it seemed like an eternity,” she said with a laugh.

 

As she surveyed the damage she knew it could have been worse. And in the aftermath, she came to realize a few other things.

 

“There were so many people that reached out to me. I don’t know if there are really words to say because I felt a lot of things as it happened, said Shull. “What I’m most grateful for is that there was someone there, someone I never had met and didn’t know, that helped us in a very serious time of need.”

 

The man’s name was Ben Coffin. Apparently, he lives in Harrison County and Shull has corresponded with his wife via Facebook. In the end, she wanted to let everyone know just how thankful she was for what he did.

 

“It sounds kind of corny, but we were already safe and didn’t know it then someone sent him to us. It was just like a guardian angel that came to help us and check on us,” said Shull. “I’m extremely thankful and glad he was there. I just wish everyone around here could know how much his gesture of help meant.”

 

Hopefully now, a few more do. While too often someone would have zoomed past or simply complained for being stuck in traffic, there are also a lot of people like Ben Coffin still out there. People who do the right thing – people who help restore your faith in humanity.