When a stranger recently knocked on Ellie Mitchell’s door and offered to clear her roof of snow, she immediately asked, “What will it cost me?”

At 81, she knew snow removal people didn’t go knocking on doors for fun. But the man surprised her. He answered, “Nothing.”

“He said, ‘I just thought I’d do a good deed,'” Mitchell said.

Within minutes, the man was clearing the metal roof of Mitchell’s Livermore Falls mobile home, sweeping off the snow with the long-handled tool he’d just used at his sister’s place a few towns over.

“I went out with money for him and he said, ‘No, no. I was just doing it as a good deed,'” she said.

And then he was gone.

“I didn’t even get his name,” Mitchell said.

While he was there, he mentioned that his sister taught in Leeds, the same town where Mitchell’s daughter teaches.

But she’s still not sure where the man came from or how he found her mobile home in the middle of the neighborhood or how he knew she could use the help.

But she wanted to say thank you.

“There’s not very many people who do things like that for senior citizens,” she said.

– Lindsay Tice
Snowbank extraction

Everyone hopes that they will never need the assistance of the fire department.

On Friday, Jan. 4, Sun Journal photographer Amber Waterman – that’s me – was in desperate need of their aid.

I had climbed on top of a snowbank to get another perspective of a head-on collision on Riverside Drive in Auburn. Without warning, the icy crust of snow gave way and I quickly found myself posterior deep in an icy embrace.

With my legs trapped, I could only twist my torso about and flail my arms.

All attempts to get free were fruitless

I was stuck.

Luckily, Auburn Firefighters Mitch Sperry and Jim Hart were standing by.

Responding to my distressed squeaks, Sperry grabbed my camera and Hart grabbed my hand.

The two of them hauled me out of the snow and onto the safety of solid ground.

“Without them, who knows how long I would have been in that snow bank,” I laughed.

Luckily, there is no photographic evidence of my folly, although there was a long line of cars watching the entire episode unfold.

– Amber Waterman