On Aug. 17 around noon, I was driving toward the Bothell-Everett Highway on 196th Street before the road goes under I-405. A westbound car was stopped, with cars behind it. I stopped my car as that driver was walking toward my lane to pick up something moving on the road.

It was a large turtle! The man lifted it gently, walked it safely across the road, returned to his car, and drove off. That poor slow creature never would have had a chance with all the traffic had that Good Samaritan not happened along. I wanted to thank him, but traffic began moving again and it was not possible. Perhaps he will read this public note of appreciation.

Ironically, this happened on the day I was writing a chapter for my third book in a series about the Kempton family in Eastern Montana. Farcountry Press will release the first volume this October, titled “The Kemptons: Adventures of a Montana Ranch Family, 1880-1965.”

The story I was working on included a photo of my father’s brothers who found a turtle near a waterhole on their cattle ranch, which was not far from the small town of Terry, Montana. Unfortunately, they were holding it by its tail about to fling it across the prairie.

These two incidents, separated by many hundreds of miles and more than a hundred years, both involved turtles. I like the outcome of the one I witnessed far better.

Trudy Kempton Dana

Edmonds