Life
High schoolers wake up early to help make sure woman could make it to her dialysis
She had a dialysis appointment early in the morning but it had snowed 8 inches overnight...
Luis Gaskell
05.14.21

In the early months of 2019, the snow was particularly heavy in most of the United States.

Six inches of snow blanketed many states, and needless to say, a lot of driveways were blocked.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

Thankfully, that’s what snow shovels are for. While it may be a lot more labor-intense than sweeping leaves off the front lawn, it’s not something you can just procrastinate on. People like Natalie Blair knew this all too well.

Blair regularly needs to go for a dialysis. Her life quite literally depends on it.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

While this isn’t much of an issue for most parts of the year, the particularly snowy months of February and March in 2019 were vastly different.

Standing between Natalie and her life-saving dialysis appointments was several layers of snow, and Natalie was in no place to shovel all of it off her driveway. Take on look at how long her driveway is, and it becomes pretty clear this is no simple task.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

It’s a good thing she didn’t have to.

Living in the same neighborhood as Natalie were Brian and Patrick Lanigan, two bright young men who excelled at assisting anyone in their neighborhood. Helping out was something Brian did professionally – he worked as an EMT. If there was anyone in the neighborhood to call for help, it was him.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

Although this wouldn’t be that simple today. Brian did shovel Natalie’s driveway a few days prior, but his EMT duty called and he was out for the day.

Thank goodness there was still Patrick.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

Natalie had to go to her dialysis, and Patrick was here to make absolutely sure she could do that. He took up the snow-shoveling duties for the day – with the help of 4 other friends too. This was, without exaggeration, a life saving gesture to Natalie.

But where did Patrick’s backup come from? Well, no other than Parsippany High School, of course. The high schoolers were up all night playing video games, so they weren’t exactly tired. Hey, sometimes you gotta play some God of War and Dark Souls 3 to pass the night.

YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY
Source:
YouTube screenshot - Eyewitness News ABC7NY

The senior high schoolers all study there, and this meant contacting each other was easy peasy.

Now with this manpower at their hands, there was little reason to worry. In less than half an hour of shoveling, they’d managed to clear all the snow from in front of Natalie’s house. Not to mention, they did this all at 4:30 in the morning.

Peter Lanigan on Twitter
Source:
Peter Lanigan on Twitter

Snow this heavy meant a good chance for schools to cancel classes, which I’m sure a lot of students would have appreciated.

This wasn’t the case, and Parsippany High School simply delayed the start of classes by 2 hours.

Still, it’s better than nothing. 2 hours is enough time to grab a nap, have some breakfast and just unwind for a bit. I know I would appreciate a 2 hour break like this.

Peter Lanigan on Twitter
Source:
Peter Lanigan on Twitter

All that sacrifice and hard work wouldn’t go unnoticed, fortunately. Patrick’s father, Mr. Peter Lanigan, snapped a photo of the boys in their snow attire shovels in hand, and shared it with the world.

Natalie could now make it to her dialysis with no trouble, and the boys went ahead to school like they do every other day.

This sort of thing was common for Patrick to do, and his father mentions that the high schooler is known around the neighborhood for being a helpful little soul.

Below is where you can watch a more detailed showcase of the boys’ doing their kind, honest work. If Patrick’s little snow clean-up crew proved interesting to read about, then please share this article!

Watch more in the video below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Advertisement