I am Troubled
Today something happened that made me want to kick myself around town for a few hours. The Bear and I went to Wal-Mart today, and passed a couple of older women, one of whom was using a walking cane in each hand, and seemed to be having difficulty walking.
I was thinking that maybe I should help her, and then get her into one of the electric cart deals. I didn't and moved past her.
I was half way between the front door and the entrance doors into the store when I heard "Oh my God!"
I turned to see the woman with the canes face down on the ground, blood all over her hands, face, and the ground. She was struggling to get up, but a young man jumped in and took control of the situation and got her seated in a chair. A young woman jumped in as well, caring for the other woman who was rather distraught. She was hugging her and comforting her.
I hollered to one of the employees to call for paramedics. I tried to get in closer to help too, but there were a lot of people, and the Wal-Mart crew was shooing people away.
A fire truck pulled up a few minutes later, and they took care of her. She was able to walk after they were done patching up the rather ugly wound on her forehead.
I felt horrible. I could have helped her before this happened, and could probably have prevented it from happening.
How hard really would it have been for me to take a couple minutes out of my life to make sure a struggling elderly woman made it safely into Wal-Mart?
I felt the need to applaud the young man and the young woman who didn't think twice about helping her.
So the moral of this story is: If you see an opportunity to help somebody... FRICKIN' DO IT!
posted by CheezWeezil at 4:44 PM
9 Weezils Have Breezed Here
9 Comments:
I think sometimes we miss those opportunities only to make us more aware of them in the future. Don't be too hard on yourself. Thanks for sharing the story.
Amen DAve. We were in a restaurant Friday night and a woman was choking. My friend's husband was hollering for his wife who is a nurse to come over...but we weren't paying any attention to the people in the other dining room where they were. So we were just chatting away. He finally came running to get his wife to help the lady, but the woman's husband had done the Heimlich and gotten the food dislodged. My first thought was, what if that woman had died, and our hesitation had cost her her life? True, we did not know why my friend's husband was so frantic. We were a bit stunned. But neither of us made a move to get out of our seat without first getting an explanation. We were so wrapped up in what we were talking about that we were oblivious to what was going on in the next room, even though it was in our line of sight. I'm not a nurse. Could I have grabbed her up and done the Heimlich properly? I don't know. But there are so many other little things we CAN do. Thanks for the reminder.
Live and learn. I would have felt the same way. Thanks for posting this. It's an eye opener.
I saw your comment on my blog and thought I would stop by yours! I feel bad using the same name as your wife. I would change it, but, well, it's a LONG story and changing it now isn't an option. I'm just glad I didn't steal her blog title. That would be worse:)
When I saw your blog I about spit out my teeth because I'm from Mesa. Sort of. I lived there a LONG time up until 2002. My mom and sis are still there and I'm heading back down there this winter for another visit. My mom is in East Mesa and sis is in "Higley" which is just South Mesa. LOL!
So, if it's ANY consolation to your post... This time of year, in Mesa, if you helped out EVERY single elderly person in that area you would have a full time job and then some. We both now how many elderly people there are in Mesa right now. They are flooding in as we speak. Lucky for me, they are all LEAVING my area! HA HA HA!
I agree with Bree. Now, you will be even more aware of ways you can help people and will be more apt to listen to those "promptings."
It is interesting that you actually got to see consequences of not following your intuition (promptings). A lot of times I think "I should do this", "I should visit her", "I should take this person something", and not follow through. I don't know what would or would not have happened.
Thanks for the reminder to pay more attention.
geez, poor lady. Hey, don't beat yourself up.
Several people have fallen down the escalator at work. Ending in a bloody heap at the bottom as someone struggles to turn the thing off.
I laugh every time.
It's bad, but I do.
So, hey, don't feel bad. You missed an opportunity, but you didn't laugh.
From here on out....I will forever remember...."Just frickin' do it"
whenever I see someone who is struggling! Of course, I'll have to be careful not to repeat that phrase out loud while trying to help...they may feel assaulted!
Good lesson Dave--thanx for sharing it!
Diane
Hi Dave!
Thanks for the reminder on helping others...we all need that! And we've all been there, whether we admit it or not. That also is true for sharing our faith, which is even more important. There have been times when I know that God wanted me to share my faith in a certain way, but I walked away from the experience. The good thing is that God won't walk away from us. He'll walk by our side through all of our mistakes, and the cool thing is that he doesn't give up on us and gives us ample opportunity to make up for it!
That is terrible experience, but instead of keeping it to yourself, you chose to share it with others so that we could all learn and be reminded of just how fragile life is and how we can help each other, even with the smallest of things.
God bless, Dave.
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