The snow piled up in the driveway as I watched from the window, already dreading what comes after the last flake falls. With each passing year I hope for the return of a society in which chivalry is not dead. One that reminds us of what our mothers taught.

As I push my shovel back and forth, glancing up at the many cars, trucks, even plows driving by — all filled with able-bodied, strapping men — I am assured of the good in this world winning out yet again. The summer has come and gone with a renewal to a kinder, gentler time. We are still the same people we have always been.

When I try to find faults with my fellow man, I am shown instances of mercy and kindness, enough to melt any ice-laced home. People hurrying to help their mothers and neighbors to dig out of the snow, smiling and waving to each other as a sign of solidarity.

So many people look over at me, wave and smile, aware of my grimaced face and bent over posture as their own. They do not pretend that they don’t see me. The people that I grew up with not so long ago have shoveled out all of their neighbors and checked in on them as well. How easily we come back to how we were raised. There is a satisfaction in helping others that cannot be duplicated.

I pride myself on being fit at 50, but that means I also look like I don’t need help. Just being a woman was once enough to send help my way. I’m not sure anymore. Is there any age or any circumstance that would change this?

The snow shoveling is a culmination of the times throughout the year that I have been in need of assistance. The car breaking down, the lawn mower refusing to start, and the endless raking. As I walk, pull, shovel and rake my way through the seasons, I am bombarded with the kind words of strangers, but only words.

I think of going back in time to warn the women of the past, “Don’t be so quick to dismiss your need for help.”

With equality has come anonymity. With liberation could come isolation.

Still, as always, I look forward to next winter.

V. L. Trudeau is a freelance writer living in Canterbury.