He's a "Good Samaritan" who took action for complete strangers in last weekend's storm and when we tried to reunite him with that couple he helped out, he had a surprise of his own.
Within seconds into our interview about his good deed, Ric Rose broke out in a smile. He could see familiar faces out of the corner of his eye approaching us.
We had arranged for Cherese and Early Jackson of Norfolk to join us as we honored Rose outside his Virginia Beach home.
Rose exchanged greetings and hugs with the Jacksons--his new friends following their rescue from being stranded after trying to make it home in last weekend's storm. It was a simple but sincere offer Rose says, "I just said, 'Hey if you don't mind, you can come hang out at my house.'"
They all first met outside a recording studio in a strip mall near the Virginia Beach courthouse. Early and Cherese had attended a studio party there Saturday night, when they tried to leave, they soon realized the roads were horrible---they didn't get far and they returned to the recording studio where they ended up spending the night.
The next day on Sunday morning they tried to come out and leave and still the roads were badly flooded. That's when they saw Rose who was trying to get ice from a grocery store located in the strip mall. He was able to get around in his truck.
I asked him what was going through his mind when he was about to ask these strangers to get in his truck? "There wasn't much going through my mind, other than I wanted to help these two out." And Cherese was quite clear, "I'm saying, I don't care where he takes us--just take me out of here. I was all for it."
Her husband Early agreed, "But you know his body language and everything, I knew instantly we were talking this is a great guy." Plus you can't put any better than the way Cherese summed this moment up, "I mean just think of the state our country is in. It's in a critical state of divide in every way possible and this guy who didn't even know us, had never seen us before, offered to feed us--offered to take us to safety---that's seriously admirable!"
What Rose ended up doing is taking the Jacksons to their friend's house where they stayed until the roads cleared up. Cherese wrote in an email, "We view him as a Good Samaritan and hope you will too."
That's why we presented Rose with a People Taking Action award and a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank.
Rose was very appreciative but insisted we give the gift card to someone who really needed it, who was affected by the recent flood.
So we honored his request and we have identified a Virginia Beach mother of three, who is expecting a third child in three weeks. She was flooded out of her apartment, losing many things including all her gifts from a recent baby shower. I spoke with her by phone and Rose's generosity brought her to tears.
