Save A Life

                                Have you ever saved a life ?  I have a few times mainly job related, but not always.A few years ago in my previous job. I was caring for a lady with terminal cancer in her sixties. Her main caregiver was her son who was close to my age and who had moved back home after the end of a relationship. I grew very close to the family after going there twice a day for a year. I went one evening and noticed her vitals were down. I phoned the ambulance but she passed away the following day. I went to visit the son and he thanked me for noticing the change in his mothers condition and said he was grateful for the few hours he had to say goodbye to her.  He wrote a lovely tribute to me in her obituary and seemed to be in an upbeat mood after the funeral. A few weeks had passed and I was just finishing work for the day when I had this feeling something was wrong with him. I've learnt from the past to trust my gut feelings and even though I had plans I decided to drive to his house if only to put my mind to rest. When I got there I knocked. No reply. I tried the door and it was open. I opened and called it was me. No reply. I walked in and could hear crying. As I got closer I realized it was from his mothers room. I walked in and he was sobbing and then I saw the blood and realized he had slit his wrists. I phoned the ambulance and grabbed towels to wrap his wrists. Then lay him down and I lay behind him hugging him. He survived and we are still close friends. I encouraged him to join groups to make friends, and even went with him until he felt comfortable. We also meet up every few weeks for a drink or some food and text a few times a week. I have to keep a little detachment from him because I don't want him getting to attached and dependant on me.                                                                       When I was fifteen I'd gone on a minibus trip to a neighbouring town to a disco. This is back in the seventies. So, I could just say I was the legal drinking age no one asked for any proof. I won't go into a long drawn out story but instead I'll get straight to the point. The town I lived in and The neighbouring town both had gangs who were in dispute with each other. A truce had been called for the night. My boyfriend at the time was the leader of the other towns gang. Towards the end of the night he pulled me aside and said his gang was going to attack my towns gang and that they had weapons. He told me to grab my friends and get back to the minibus, and that they had been told they'd answer to him if I even got a scratch. So, I grabbed my friend and we started running. As we ran past a pub we saw a male school friend passed out on the grass outside. We could hear the screams and yells from the fighting and knew the mob was getting close. We dragged him as far as we could and put him behind a bush. The gang saw us and wanted him but I put myself between him and them. I was terrified but stood my ground and told them they'd have to go through me first. I just hoped my voice didn't betray the trembling. Eventually they decided to leave us alone saying they didn't want a kicking or worse from my boyfriend. Once we were sure they'd gone we carried him back to the minibus. He still to this day swears I saved his life. He even helps my brother out sometimes saying no charge, I owe your sister my life. I don't know that I did that but I certainly saved him from serious injury.