Insurance to the Rescue? A Man and an Almost-Missed Wedding

It was the wedding of a lifetime - and Dr. Nathan McKay was about to miss it.

"It had completely slipped my mind," says McKay, a mathematician at a well-known university that shall remain nameless. "I wrote it down, I booked the flight three months in advance, I even told my TA that he let me miss it, he'd be fired. My sister isn't a very forgiving person, see. If I forgot her wedding, she wouldn't let me live it down until the grandkids were born."

Despite his best efforts, however, time flew - and so did his plane, without him on it.

According to McKay, he'd lost himself in the demands of his schedule.

According to his TA, that wasn't uncommon.

"Brilliant but distracted" is the general consensus of McKay. A mathematician for close to ten years, he's almost stereotypically the image of an absent-minded professor - rumpled hair, glasses, and a collection of cardigans. He'd rather be grading papers than socializing. His humor is wry and self-deprecating.

When he realized he was about to miss his sister's wedding, he found himself panicked and low on options. He called the airline only to discover that no other flights would get him there by the next day. Bicycling - his transportation of choice - would take too long. He didn't even own a car.

But his TA did.

"It was a lightbulb moment," says McKay. "I looked at him and a solution poured forth from the heavens. I knew he would have the good spirit and generosity to lend me his vehicle."

"He told me that if I didn't, I'd be double-fired," his TA says.

The young man, Rodney Stills, is a twentysomething from the same university. He grins easily and accepts Dr. McKay's quirks with the ease of long practice.

Rodney says that by the wedding fiasco he'd been working closely with the doctor for the better part of a year, and while he wanted to help, he was wary of the consequences.

"I mean, it was my car," Rodney says. "And this was Dr. McKay. What if he ran it off the road while doing equations in his head? What if he messed up the directions and drove it right into the chapel? I've met his sister. He was right to be afraid."

Luckily for both of them, they stumbled on a solution: insuranceshortterm.co.uk.

A short term car insurance policy from this site is ideal for anyone who needs quick, easy cover. It's good for 1-28 days and is often used by drivers borrowing a car from friends, or new owners who are driving a car fresh off the lot. There are limited restrictions and it's freely available to most people over 21 who have a valid license and a reasonable driving record.

Through these means, Dr. McKay had found a way to borrow Rodney's car without the young man having to worry.

"God bless whoever came up with the idea," he says. "I don't know what I would've done without it."

So did he make it to the wedding on time?

"No," McKay says with a grimace. "I mean, I made it there, yes. With time to spare, even. But then I realized I'd left my tux at home, so I had to run around the city and find a tailor, and by the time I got there everyone was already sitting down and they all turned around and looked at me..."

"I told him to just be glad he didn't interrupt the actual vows," Rodney says, grinning.

For the record, McKay never fired him. .

 For some people,anyhow!

Copyright David Bell 2009