Coworkers: Willie Andrews
When his alarm went off at 2:30 a.m., it was just another normal day for Willie Andrews, Ozinga courier and retired ready mix driver. After more than 40 years of driving, he likes to start early to beat the rush and wrap up his day early enough to enjoy it.
This morning was different for Willie. He wasn’t supposed to work, but a last-minute schedule change had him up before sunrise. He didn’t mind though— in his words, he’d be up anyway.
On that morning of November 23, Willie picked up his delivery items in Mokena to take to various yards. First, he drove to Des Plaines, then to Evanston and then to Northside. Soon after leaving Northside, he received a call from Andre Calhoun, plant manager, to let him know he forgot his locker keys. Only about a block away from the plant, Willie made a U-turn and returned for the keys.
Back on the road, Willie was on the expressway heading toward the ramp to merge onto I-55 South, when he noticed something out of place: a car was parked along the barrier wall, and to his surprise, a young woman was standing one lane into traffic. She was leaning her body forward, indicating to Willie that she was getting ready to jump in front of an oncoming car.
In that moment—without hesitation—Willie parked his vehicle in between the lanes to protect her. He jumped out of his car and rushed to her side, put his arms around her, and told her not to do it.
“I told her, ‘You don’t have to do this; people love you.’ I wanted to get her to respond, but she wouldn’t say a word, she just had tears running down her face,” said Willie.
He convinced the woman to go back to her car and sit in the passenger side. He stood by the driver’s side of her car trying to get the attention of other drivers to call for help. Having left his phone in his vehicle, he didn’t want to grab it, for fear that the woman might dart out of her car without warning. Finally, though, he caught the attention of one driver and told him to call police.
As the minutes dragged on, Willie just kept talking to her. “I told her, ‘You look like you’re my daughter’s age. Please think of your family; don’t do this to them,’” said Willie. He kept talking and saying anything he could think of to get her to talk, but she just cried.
Once help arrived, Willie told them, “This girl needs help; she was ready to end her life on the interstate.” After State Police took control of the situation, Willie was told to leave. No information was collected from him.
Shaken from the event to this day, Willie can’t help but think of how the outcome could have been tragically different had he not been there at that precise moment. The last-minute schedule change, the early start to his day, the forgotten keys for the lock box all led him to this exact point in time to save someone’s life.
“I wasn’t supposed to be there that day. Then, I forgot the keys and had to go back,” said Willie. “I was ordained to be there.”
Willie still gets emotional when he tells the story. He thinks of all the cars that went before him, those rushing to get to work who didn’t bother to stop—too many to count.
While he has no way of knowing how the young lady is doing, he hopes she found solace in knowing a complete stranger cared about her.
“I think about her a lot and how devastating it must have been for her to be pushed to that point,” said Willie. “As young as she was, I don’t know what would make her want to take that drastic step.”
In all of his years of driving, Willie has never seen anything like this or witnessed a tragic accident, but he knows one thing: The chain of events that positioned him in that area at that specific time to give someone a second chance in life was no accident, happenstance or coincidence.
“My timing was perfect to be in that spot in the world,” said Willie.
