Thank you so very much for sharing your story Bill-Definitely puts things in perspective and reminds us we are exactly where we are supposed to be even if we can't understand why at the time. Happy Thanksgiving!
Great story. When things go right, it requires a concatenation of events. Same with things that go wrong. I especially think of Mike Spann and November 25, 2001 - change one thing that day (a third CIA team member had to deliver a vehicle, ODA 595 were in Kunduz, suicide blast the night before had freaked out the guards, John Walker Lindh remained silent etc. etc.) in Qala-i Jangi, and he would have lived. But there were probably other days in the previous 40 when Team Alpha were in Afghanistan when a single thing could have been changed and he, or someone else, would have died. I don't often get to use the word concatenation, but I think it fits here!
On a street known for speeding with signs on people's lawns saying Slow Down, I found a girl about 4 yrs in the street, she somehow got out of her house, I grabbed her up in my arms and went into the house with the open door. Mother did not know how she got out. And yes she thanked me profusely.
That was an exciting, funny, inspiring, and interesting Thanksgiving story, Bill! You ran the gamut of my emotions with it. I consider it to be one of your classics. As a teacher, there are many times I have "been there" for students at particular stages of their lives. I am thankful for every student whose life I have touched in some way. Yesterday, one of my students, who was a freshman in high school when I began teaching, came to my home; and we laughed and talked like two young girls! I started teaching in 1970! She invited me to have dinner with her family, and I have been adopted by them since that night. She was my student for four years, majored in what I taught, Spanish, and taught it until she retired a few years ago. During that time, she stayed in contact with me, and we became colleagues and friends. My husband and I were always invited to her parents' house when she came "home." I taught her "little brother." I was at her wedding. I was at her dad's funeral. She has already asked me to be the one who stays close and supports her when her mothers passes, because of religious differences and husband won't be there. She has gone through the ups and downs of my life, too. I love this family. My husband passed away a few years ago, and it is nice to know that I am considered family to them. Her mom is an angel. She is from New Mexico going strong at 85! Who would have thought on my first day of the first year as a teacher and her first year in high school that 52 years later we would be enjoying a wonderful afternoon together as friends?!
You also have written a lovely story about a student who you have had the opportunity to mentor and be a part of her life for what has turned out to be forever for each other. We truly don’t ever know how our seemingly little old lives will impact others. Isn’t it not only strange but wonderful as well?
Yes, it is! Thank you for your comment. I have often said I do not believe in happenstance. We cross each other's paths when it is meant to be, as Bill was meant to be there for that little girl and that we are communicating now. Happy Thanksgiving!
Great story Bill! So many times we experience or hear of that right time/right place moment. Makes me a believer in (fill in the higher power/fate/destiny blank). BTW - you never said what you did with the fridge!
Call it serendipity Bill. Frankly I’m just grateful that at your age(certainly no insult intended)you didn’t have a coronary with all you did in a split second. We both know that your age group is at risk for such an event. Maybe too, under the circumstances, I am just far more aware of health delicacies than ever. I’m witnessing the results of years of dietary abuse as it were.
So yes, Bill, I’m very grateful everything fell into place so you could be in the right place, in the right time to save a child’s life and survive to tell us your story. That’s life. We don’t ever know when or even if we will be called upon to be a hero and heroic acts don’t always have survivors. You are a good guy, red face and all. Maybe that little girl will grow up to discover something wonderful for the world or an ax murderer. That, my man, you may never know. Just call it all serendipity.
Ohh Bill, I’m so glad you didn’t follow your hesitation — we who love and enjoy you Know Who You Really Are, and I am very much appreciating and feeling gratitude for your sharing with us this story that feels so familiar in the 21st-century-ness/late-pandemic-ness of it all — being involved in a good deed (saving the holiday nosh!), distracted by so much, and meaning so well, yet still spinning and swirling in the overwhelming “WTF?!?” of the moments of unfolding) — Bless you, dear guy!, and Please accept my Thanksgiving gratitude for your honesty and authenticity and sensibilities… Stories like this, in which our stars (yes, honey, to me you are indeed a “Star” 🤩) show and share their (your) down-to-earthness and common-man experiences, and reveal how Life often brings us unexpected opportunities to connect with our brothers and sisters in real heroism, and to, in the end, truly shine 🥰… there is much inspiration and uplift for each reader in an instance such as this, and I send my thanks, my real and warm gratitude, for your heartfelt power and love, outlined in a simple, familiar tale… I hope your Thanksgiving returns the favor in a million wonderful ways…
I too had a story of interesting timing. Had taken a random weekday off of work to do some long over due yard work. My wife and I were busy in the front yard when a neighbor comes running from across the cul de sac with her 2 year old in her arms like a sack of potatoes. His face is blue and she is screaming he swallowed a quarter and can’t breathe. She hands him to me and out of pure response I perform the Heimlich maneuver and out pops the quarter at lightning speed. His mom was crying, he regained his breath and all was well. All heats were beating at record pace.
That training in school years before paid off by knowing the maneuver. Thankful for the recall. Not because I had ever preformed it but because I had learning it in health class probably about 9th grade. I, like you, did not feel hero status, but I was thankful to be available that random day in the front yard.
It also reminded me to hug my people a little harder that day.
You need to add one more thing to your list of things that made your rescue possible - you are a white man. Imagine a black person driving up and down a street several times, parking in front of a closed office building, and retrieving a fridge in the dark. It's not hard to imagine that police might have been involved.
Is it fate, coincidence, destiny, who knows? Beautiful timing? Whatever,if the results are positive, it’s a good thing. But it can work the other way,too. Not to put a damper, thanks Bill. Good job!
Great story Bill! From now on you’ll probably be more aware of your surroundings- forever!
A quick note on the RentAHitman story. It’s absolutely hilarious!!! There’s more than one person who wanted people to be snuffed out. This guy, makes up a hilarious name for his hit man and actually engaged with one of the perpetrators. I nearly died laughing, but didn’t have Bill to save me. Hahah
Coincidences. I've had too many to count. It reminds me that there may be a greater power who puts us in places we shouldn't be, doing things we shouldn't do, and seeing results we shouldn't see. But it happens. Makes me think. Happy Thanksgiving, Bill, to you and yours.
I have one! It's not as heroic as your story, but it did save me in another major way. It's also not my story necessarily, but I was directly affected by it.
This past Friday was the seventeenth anniversary of when my dad, sister and I immigrated to the US from Ecuador. It's no coincidence that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday given that it was the first one we spent here, and it's no coincidence that every year at around this time I reminisce and reflect on how thankful I am that we did immigrate because of all the experiences I've had because of the move.
Well, the move wouldn't have happened if several things hadn't lined up as they did. The process for us to be claimed started in or around 1997, and due to my sister being born and then my parents' getting divorced, the paperwork had to be amended a few times and be put back in the queue (the claims process to come into the US already takes an eternity). Finally, in 2004, my dad got his turn to be claimed. During an initial phone conversation with the consulate where they told him what to bring, where to go and when, he was about to hang up the phone when the lady on the other end said, "Before you go. I have paperwork here for two more people. MY NAME and MY SISTER'S NAME. Will they be traveling with you?" My dad was stunned for a quick second before saying, "If it's possible to add them into the process now, please do."
A split-second decision for that woman to double check her paperwork when she couldn't have bothered to. A split-second decision for my dad to grab at the opportunity to get custody of us. A lifetime that unfolded as both of them unknowingly crafted my destiny.
LOTS of things wouldn't have happened without those two split-second decisions, one of them obviously being that I wouldn't be writing to you at all today (because without moving here, I wouldn't have learned English, I wouldn't have the job I have, I wouldn't have found you through HARO, I wouldn't have signed up, read and commented...). I have to say I haven't invented a better mouse trap yet, but I do have a novel I'm writing that, if it ever gets finished and published, may just be enough to inspire someone else.
Oh, and I hope that the woman on the other end of the phone has never had to experience any hardships in the slightest in the past seventeen years.
This was a great Thanksgiving story!! It lifted my heart. Thank you so much for sharing. :)
Thank you so very much for sharing your story Bill-Definitely puts things in perspective and reminds us we are exactly where we are supposed to be even if we can't understand why at the time. Happy Thanksgiving!
Great story. When things go right, it requires a concatenation of events. Same with things that go wrong. I especially think of Mike Spann and November 25, 2001 - change one thing that day (a third CIA team member had to deliver a vehicle, ODA 595 were in Kunduz, suicide blast the night before had freaked out the guards, John Walker Lindh remained silent etc. etc.) in Qala-i Jangi, and he would have lived. But there were probably other days in the previous 40 when Team Alpha were in Afghanistan when a single thing could have been changed and he, or someone else, would have died. I don't often get to use the word concatenation, but I think it fits here!
LOVE that word
On a street known for speeding with signs on people's lawns saying Slow Down, I found a girl about 4 yrs in the street, she somehow got out of her house, I grabbed her up in my arms and went into the house with the open door. Mother did not know how she got out. And yes she thanked me profusely.
That was an exciting, funny, inspiring, and interesting Thanksgiving story, Bill! You ran the gamut of my emotions with it. I consider it to be one of your classics. As a teacher, there are many times I have "been there" for students at particular stages of their lives. I am thankful for every student whose life I have touched in some way. Yesterday, one of my students, who was a freshman in high school when I began teaching, came to my home; and we laughed and talked like two young girls! I started teaching in 1970! She invited me to have dinner with her family, and I have been adopted by them since that night. She was my student for four years, majored in what I taught, Spanish, and taught it until she retired a few years ago. During that time, she stayed in contact with me, and we became colleagues and friends. My husband and I were always invited to her parents' house when she came "home." I taught her "little brother." I was at her wedding. I was at her dad's funeral. She has already asked me to be the one who stays close and supports her when her mothers passes, because of religious differences and husband won't be there. She has gone through the ups and downs of my life, too. I love this family. My husband passed away a few years ago, and it is nice to know that I am considered family to them. Her mom is an angel. She is from New Mexico going strong at 85! Who would have thought on my first day of the first year as a teacher and her first year in high school that 52 years later we would be enjoying a wonderful afternoon together as friends?!
You also have written a lovely story about a student who you have had the opportunity to mentor and be a part of her life for what has turned out to be forever for each other. We truly don’t ever know how our seemingly little old lives will impact others. Isn’t it not only strange but wonderful as well?
Yes, it is! Thank you for your comment. I have often said I do not believe in happenstance. We cross each other's paths when it is meant to be, as Bill was meant to be there for that little girl and that we are communicating now. Happy Thanksgiving!
Our “Angels” possibly? Somehow they always seem to appear when needed.
What a great story!
Great story Bill! So many times we experience or hear of that right time/right place moment. Makes me a believer in (fill in the higher power/fate/destiny blank). BTW - you never said what you did with the fridge!
Call it serendipity Bill. Frankly I’m just grateful that at your age(certainly no insult intended)you didn’t have a coronary with all you did in a split second. We both know that your age group is at risk for such an event. Maybe too, under the circumstances, I am just far more aware of health delicacies than ever. I’m witnessing the results of years of dietary abuse as it were.
So yes, Bill, I’m very grateful everything fell into place so you could be in the right place, in the right time to save a child’s life and survive to tell us your story. That’s life. We don’t ever know when or even if we will be called upon to be a hero and heroic acts don’t always have survivors. You are a good guy, red face and all. Maybe that little girl will grow up to discover something wonderful for the world or an ax murderer. That, my man, you may never know. Just call it all serendipity.
Ohh Bill, I’m so glad you didn’t follow your hesitation — we who love and enjoy you Know Who You Really Are, and I am very much appreciating and feeling gratitude for your sharing with us this story that feels so familiar in the 21st-century-ness/late-pandemic-ness of it all — being involved in a good deed (saving the holiday nosh!), distracted by so much, and meaning so well, yet still spinning and swirling in the overwhelming “WTF?!?” of the moments of unfolding) — Bless you, dear guy!, and Please accept my Thanksgiving gratitude for your honesty and authenticity and sensibilities… Stories like this, in which our stars (yes, honey, to me you are indeed a “Star” 🤩) show and share their (your) down-to-earthness and common-man experiences, and reveal how Life often brings us unexpected opportunities to connect with our brothers and sisters in real heroism, and to, in the end, truly shine 🥰… there is much inspiration and uplift for each reader in an instance such as this, and I send my thanks, my real and warm gratitude, for your heartfelt power and love, outlined in a simple, familiar tale… I hope your Thanksgiving returns the favor in a million wonderful ways…
Sometimes things happen for a reason! In this case, what a gift your efforts to get the fridge turned out to be! Thanks for sharing the story!
Oh yes, Happy Thanksgiving Bill 🦃
Love your story and don’t believe in coincidence.
I too had a story of interesting timing. Had taken a random weekday off of work to do some long over due yard work. My wife and I were busy in the front yard when a neighbor comes running from across the cul de sac with her 2 year old in her arms like a sack of potatoes. His face is blue and she is screaming he swallowed a quarter and can’t breathe. She hands him to me and out of pure response I perform the Heimlich maneuver and out pops the quarter at lightning speed. His mom was crying, he regained his breath and all was well. All heats were beating at record pace.
That training in school years before paid off by knowing the maneuver. Thankful for the recall. Not because I had ever preformed it but because I had learning it in health class probably about 9th grade. I, like you, did not feel hero status, but I was thankful to be available that random day in the front yard.
It also reminded me to hug my people a little harder that day.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Wonderful, Paul. Glad you were there!
You need to add one more thing to your list of things that made your rescue possible - you are a white man. Imagine a black person driving up and down a street several times, parking in front of a closed office building, and retrieving a fridge in the dark. It's not hard to imagine that police might have been involved.
Far too true in today’s reality.
Is it fate, coincidence, destiny, who knows? Beautiful timing? Whatever,if the results are positive, it’s a good thing. But it can work the other way,too. Not to put a damper, thanks Bill. Good job!
Great story Bill! From now on you’ll probably be more aware of your surroundings- forever!
A quick note on the RentAHitman story. It’s absolutely hilarious!!! There’s more than one person who wanted people to be snuffed out. This guy, makes up a hilarious name for his hit man and actually engaged with one of the perpetrators. I nearly died laughing, but didn’t have Bill to save me. Hahah
Coincidences. I've had too many to count. It reminds me that there may be a greater power who puts us in places we shouldn't be, doing things we shouldn't do, and seeing results we shouldn't see. But it happens. Makes me think. Happy Thanksgiving, Bill, to you and yours.
I have one! It's not as heroic as your story, but it did save me in another major way. It's also not my story necessarily, but I was directly affected by it.
This past Friday was the seventeenth anniversary of when my dad, sister and I immigrated to the US from Ecuador. It's no coincidence that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday given that it was the first one we spent here, and it's no coincidence that every year at around this time I reminisce and reflect on how thankful I am that we did immigrate because of all the experiences I've had because of the move.
Well, the move wouldn't have happened if several things hadn't lined up as they did. The process for us to be claimed started in or around 1997, and due to my sister being born and then my parents' getting divorced, the paperwork had to be amended a few times and be put back in the queue (the claims process to come into the US already takes an eternity). Finally, in 2004, my dad got his turn to be claimed. During an initial phone conversation with the consulate where they told him what to bring, where to go and when, he was about to hang up the phone when the lady on the other end said, "Before you go. I have paperwork here for two more people. MY NAME and MY SISTER'S NAME. Will they be traveling with you?" My dad was stunned for a quick second before saying, "If it's possible to add them into the process now, please do."
A split-second decision for that woman to double check her paperwork when she couldn't have bothered to. A split-second decision for my dad to grab at the opportunity to get custody of us. A lifetime that unfolded as both of them unknowingly crafted my destiny.
LOTS of things wouldn't have happened without those two split-second decisions, one of them obviously being that I wouldn't be writing to you at all today (because without moving here, I wouldn't have learned English, I wouldn't have the job I have, I wouldn't have found you through HARO, I wouldn't have signed up, read and commented...). I have to say I haven't invented a better mouse trap yet, but I do have a novel I'm writing that, if it ever gets finished and published, may just be enough to inspire someone else.
Oh, and I hope that the woman on the other end of the phone has never had to experience any hardships in the slightest in the past seventeen years.
I love this story. Thanks for sharing it!
When the book is ready, I'd be happy to help you self publish the book.
Thank you!