On Thursday Bud Garvey and his wife, Nancy, opened their door to a stranger.

Ryan Hindinger and his family drove nearly an hour to visit with the couple.

A few weeks earlier the Garveys crossed paths with Ryan as they were driving north on I-99.

“We started seeing these flames, this fire off to the side of the road. I just thought that well that’s a brush fire.” Bud said.

It wasn’t a brush fire, it was a burning car, and Ryan was trapped inside.

“From what I understand, I think I fell asleep drove off of the road, down into the woods,” Ryan said.

Bud said when he approached the car he noticed Ryan was conscious but said he couldn’t get out of the car.

 “I said the only chance he has of getting out of this thing is through that window.There was no other way for you to get out of that,” Bud told Ryan.

Bud was able to pull Ryan out of the car as they waited for emergency responders.

Ryan suffered a knee injury and a bleed in his brain.

“The fact that I am one of many car accidents that have happened in the last week, and I get to be with my family. My kids and my wife and I decorated our Christmas tree…Because a guy like Bud stopped,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he needed to meet the people who saved his life.

“How do you thank the person who saved you?” Ryan said.

Bud said he and Nancy aren’t heroes, adding that they believe they did what any other person would do.

“I know I can never pay him back for what he did for me but meeting him is the first step in maybe just having a lasting relationship,” Ryan said,

So he gave the couple a picture of his family.

And now taped to their refrigerator door, Nancy, Bud, Ryan and his family are anything but strangers.

Now Ryan is looking for a new vehicle for his family and trying to prepare financially for medical bills.

If you’d like to help the Hindinger family, click here.