An Original photo by Robyn Patmore
At the end of the day, when the people sleep sweet and the dreams come alive, I doubt that anybody gave thought to the soul that cried. You see the hero fly, how he saves the day, but when the sun sets no body knows about how the hero goes home to wash the blood off of his cape every day.
In December 2014, something happened that changed my life, and the lives of many other people. I was asked to be a photographer for the day by my parents at their factory Christmas party and I was more than thrilled to do so. The day before family and friends helped us pack 550 buckets with food so that the guys in the factory could get a gift from us. A caterer and band were hired, every man got a six pack of whatever drink he wanted and as they walked in they were all given popcorn and slush puppies. I thought to myself, “this is going to be THE best Christmas party that the company has everything er had before”.
It was loud and people were happy and after a few photo rounds I had lunch. Only a few minutes after my plate was cleared, some of the men started running out of the factory. It was a hot day so I assumed that maybe they started a water fight and grabbed my camera and started walking towards the huge factory door. A man came tumbling in backwards, covered in red (like wine or grapetiser) from his shirt down to his shoes, with his arms wrapped around his waste. It seemed as if he were laughing… But then he fell…. The red liquid was his blood…and eventually there was a pool of it surrounding him. I just stared at him, I wanted to pass out, to faint, to not have to see it or deal with it, to forget that it had happened. Instead I gave my mom my stuff and told her to get the family out of there. I ran back and kept telling myself to “panic slowly” ( something I was taught to do when I did my first aid course). My dad got there before I did, I was not brave enough to approach the man until my dad arrived. I pulled tablecloths off the tables and helped my dad stop the blood, I held table cloths of the man’s mouth while my dad gave him CPR. He had been stabbed on the right side of his chest, my guess is that it hit one of his Pulmonary veins. He had lost to much blood before he even hit the ground, yet I still kept believing and telling him that he would survive. He died. The man who stabbed him had been a problem since he arrived that morning, it took 5 men to get him down and to take the knife away. The other factory men tried to beat the man until he too, would be dead but some of the men that were there stopped them. I , luckily enough , did not see this, for I was taken away before this.
My first thought was , ” I have lost all faith in Humanity”, but after careful inspection I realised not to see it that way, but rather, to find the hero’s in the people around me that day. I found a hero in my dad, who gave me the strength to try and help him , the bravery and stubbornness to stay and help even after he told me not too. He did everything that he could to try and save that man’s life. I found the hero in my mom and sister who got the rest of the family out safely and who sent 4 different men to try and get me to leave even though I kept refusing. My mom who took me home and wiped the blood off of me and tried to calm me down. I found hero’s in the men who tried to get me away and especially in the man who refused to take no for an answer and picked me up off of the ground and helped me to the cars while I couldn’t see through my tears. I found hero’s in the men who tackled the guy with the knife to the ground and then later saved him from over 200 angry men. I found hero’s in my friends that came to the house to see me, the one’s that kept making sure that I was okay. But what struck me the most was, I found the hero in myself, a part of me that I didn’t think existed.
My dad, some of the men that helped and I all had to go on Anti-RetroVirals for in case of contracting HIV( A virus that we did not know if he had or not). They lasted a month and they made us weak , dizzy and nauseous. It was one of the worst things I had ever experienced, but I can look at it now and say that I can see the positive of what came out of it. That is something, that a hero always has to do.
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I don’t know if I could have dealt with this situation the way you did! One thing I have learned though is that life is better if you can see the positive in a situation! There were many heroes in this situation and it is amazing you could step out of the situation to see it!
Thank you so much! You learn a lot about yourself and about other people around you, normally people you wouldn’t even think about, when you are in a situation like that. Thank you for reading it and commenting, I really appreciate it.
The hero could not exist without the chaos. Their would be no need. Nice!