Kelly Kocher 

by Charles McGuigan 02.2026

One of the many things that make Richmond the best city anywhere is that people here go out of their way to help one another.  Just after Richmond was reduced to a sheet of Arctic ice, a man who lives in Bellevue was on his way to the local grocery store just a short distance from his home. Here’s what happened, according to his wife.

“It was the day after Richmond had been turned into a giant ice skating rink,” she says. “My husband told me we were low on a few things, and he was going to walk down to Nuttall’s.” 

And though it’s only a block away from their home, she was apprehensive about her husband’s mission, but he assured her he would be extra careful.

“A while later when I was starting to get concerned, Kelly, who works at Once Upon a Vine, showed up at our back gate,” the woman recalls. “She saw me looking out the window and called out to me.”

“Kelly had come to deliver my husband's bag of groceries, and to tell me that he'd fallen on the ice, and was in a lot of pain, and couldn't get up, so she had called the rescue squad.”

Kelly then did something extraordinary. “She went above and beyond ‘the extra mile,’” the woman says. “All my gates were frozen shut, and Kelly had a shovel with her, so she brought the grocery bag around to the front, then dug the snow and ice away from my front gate and part of my walkway so I could get out and go wait with my husband for the rescue squad.”

When the woman arrived in front of Nuttall’s, she found her husband lying in the street. “But Kelly had covered him up with several blankets and put pillows under his head. One of the blankets was a brand new Once Upon A Vine throw that she had taken out of their display window!”

And though Kelly was still working, every so often she would come out to visit the woman and her husband. “She stayed with us for over an hour, talking to my husband, encouraging him, and making sure he was comfortable while we waited for the EMT. Kelly was like an angel in disguise. She truly has the heart of a ‘good Samaritan.’ In this day and age of so many people never bothering to stop and help someone in need, it is so refreshing to see someone like Kelly with such a kind and giving heart!” 

Kelly Kocher is a familiar face in Bellevue. With her father, Bob, she co-manages the best beer and wine shop in Central Virginia--the independently owned and operated Once Upon A Vine. 

Have you witnessed an Act of Kindness in your neighborhood lately? If so, send a brief description of the event, along with a photo of the Good Samaritan, to charlesmcguigan@gmail.com In the SUBJECT line please type Acts of Kindness. Each month we will publish an act of kindness. Thank you.