My beloved 1996 minivan was never meant to climb the Fairbanks Street hill up from Portland Avenue twice in one day.

You know the hill. It needs a sherpa service. It causes reliable transmissions to wince in pain and strain.

I’m blaming it for the Unfortunate Incident that unfolded as I drove back from touring the First Creek Neighborhood with Lena and Guy Thompson.

The van and I were two blocks from The News Tribune when an awful clatter arose from the undercarriage. Smoke billowed from under the hood. We slammed to a stop. The smoke got alarming. Worried that the car was about to catch fire, I dialled 911. The response was swift, and on the humiliating side: By the time Engine 4 arrived, the smoke had died down.

Turns out, the transmission had not merely f ailed. It had exploded. Shards of metal were everywhere, and a rivulet of slippery transmission fluid was snaking toward the Sprague Avenue overpass. The cordial, yet professional, firefighters commiserated, sprinkled anti-skid dust on the fluid and suggested that we not leave the vehicle there. Cars whizzing by could have creamed it.

They could have, but they didn’t whiz by.

Two young men pulled over to push the van into a less hazardous location. I didn’t know them. They didn’t know me.

“When I come by and see a problem, I’m going to stop and help,” said Robert Boddie, first on the spot. “When I helped, other people started helping.”

He’s right.

Leon Murray of Summit was out of his car and pushing without ever saying a word.

All of us working together did better than get the van off to the side of the road. We shoved it to The News Tribune’s garage.

I couldn’t thank Murray and Boddie enough. They kept saying it was nothing. Anyone would have done it.

They’re modest in their goodness. Lots of people would not have stopped to help. But in the Tacoma that people like Robert and Leon have helped shape, more and more people are stepping up and pitching in. Boddie and Murray are local heroes, setting the example for the rest of us.

Thanks, gentlemen, from all of us who love living in a community where kindness and grace are the emerging norm.