Joey Romano was already going through a hard time in his life when he fell and broke his arm. He admits, “I didn’t have very good insurance, and I was worried about the cost.” So he didn’t call the ambulance — he called an Uber. But instead of an Uber driver, a guardian angel showed up.

Romano’s younger brother had died of leukemia, and he was struggling. He admits, “After losing my brother… and experiencing so much loss beyond that… I just became really insular. I could barely take care of myself, let alone others.” He adds, “I just shut down and closed myself off. I became really cold.”

He was skateboarding near the University of Texas at Austin when things went from bad to worse. He swerved to avoid a car and smashed into a ditch. The fall broke his wrist.

His plan was to get a cheap rideshare to the nearest urgent care clinic. When Beni Lukumu arrived, Romano was still on the ground. Lukumu leapt into action. He reclined his passenger seat and helped the young man lie down in the car. Then he insisted on driving him to the clinic for free. The doctors there urged Romano to go to the ER instead, so Lukumu loaded him back up and drove him to the hospital.

Lukumu checked the young man in and stayed with him. “I was staying with Joey. He needed somebody to be by his side.”

It took hours for Romano’s grandmother to arrive from Houston. He remembers, “I was on a morphine drip and I remember feeling glad he was there. He has this warm presence, and strangely, it felt like we had known each other forever.”

Lukumu stayed with Romano until 8 p.m., never considering leaving. “It wasn’t even a question for me.”

When Romano’s grandmother did arrive, she tried to pay Lukumu for his trouble. But he wouldn’t take her money. So she invited him to dinner instead. Lukumu says he immigrated from the Congo when he was just 25, and seeing Romano struggling reminded him of how hard it is to start out on your own. Romano adds, “Having him spend his entire day with me — a complete stranger, for no reason than the goodness of his heart, helped me to put things into perspective. Beni absolutely changed my life… That one act of kindness helped me see the good in the world again.”

Today, Romano is a renewable energy developer. Lukumu is an accomplished gospel singer and has gone from driving Uber to working in the insurance industry. Romano says, “We check in on each other a couple of times a year.”