Everyday Heroes

I think I will start collecting stories about heroes.  No special purpose in mind, I'm just inspired by people doing extraordinary things.  But before I tell you about today's inspiration, first a personal story to put things in perspective.

Many years ago when I only had two children (I have fivve now), I was a a thrift store.  Then it happened, one of the top five of every mother's worst fears, one of my children was missing.  I called him.  I looked for him, but I could not find him.  With adrenaline pumping, I thought of Walmart and how they have "Code Adam"...which as I understand, when a child goes missing, and staff is notified, there is an announcement made over the intercom and no one leaves the store until the child is found.  So hoping for the same kind of response at this store, I frantically looked around for an employee.  I saw one, and quickly approached her and explained the situation.  When I finished, she just stared at me blankly, and I realized that she was a hispanic woman, who apparently did not speak English, or least not well enough to understand the ramblings of a frantic mother.  Frustrated and panicked, I walked away from her to find someone else to help me.  It was then that I found my son.  Then it hit me...I speak Spanish...fluently.  I could have explained my situation to that employee in Spanish, but in my panic, I was not thinking clearly.

That is why I was so impressed with the story I am about to tell you about.  There was a bus traveling from Mexico to California.  At some point, it hit a truck, veered to the other side of the road, overcorrected and rolled.  There were only 22 passengers on board, six of them were killed and over a dozen were injured.  Amid all the chaos, from a stretcher, an 11 yr old boy, Oscar Rodriguez translated for the rescuers.  Considering my own experience, I marvel at this young man's presence of mind.  You can read the news story here.

I want to believe that most of us have the capability to step up and be a "hero" if the situation arose, but I hope if I am ever in that sort of a moment that speaking Spanish is not involved.

I have long been interested in heroes, I blogged about the topic once before here.