Has anyone saved your life?

When I was two (1952) I was walking up our long drive to look at the horse and cart parked there. My father allowed an elderly farmer and his wife to make use of the hay from one of our fields.

When I was halfway up the drive a low flying aircraft spooked the horse and it bolted towards me, I just stood routed to the spot in terror. A lady, whom I have always called 'Auntie Myra', who worked for my father, was packing tomatoes for export to the UK, in our packing shed, which was behind me. She looked out of the shed to see what was going on, and very bravely ran towards me and the bolting horse. She picked me and ran back with me to our farmhouse. My mother opened the door and we fell through it just as the horse passed us, with inches to spare!

If Auntie Myra, who is only 4' 8" in height, hadn't been so brave and quick off the mark, I would certainly have been killed. As it was the farmer and his wife, who were sitting on the cart at the time, fell through the shafts. Although they weren't run over, they were very badly shaken. The farmer never recovered and died of a heart attack a couple of months later.

The progress of the horse and cart was halted by a very high wall at the end of the property. The horse was shot by my father as it was totally out of control, and had always been of a nervous disposition.

At the time I think I was more upset because I had wet my pants in fright, than anything else.

Auntie Myra, who never married, will be 100 next year, she is in good health and has all her marbles. She is the only surviving member of eleven children, many of them have nearly reached their century but not quite. She loves it when I tell her that I will be extremely cross with her if she doesn't reach hers!

When I was chatting to her last night, I asked her how she intended to celebrate her birthday next year. I told Auntie Myra about the South African lady who celebrated hers by sky diving and swimming with sharks. I asked Auntie Myra if I could arrange something similar for her. She said she would think about it!

LONG LIVE AUNTIE MYRA!

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

No, nobody has ever saved my life. Not so far, anyway.

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

No but I did have a bad electric shock once years ago and got thrown across the room .

I had just bathed a dog and was about to dry it in the dog kitchen where it was very cold. I reached out to tilt the electric fire and my hands must have been wet and I ended up on the other side of the room on my bum feeling dazed .

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

Thank you for posting that lovely story Tarantula.

When I was aged 30 and my Wife went off with another bloke, I was at the point of suicide and had a very sharp knife ready to cut my wrists.
I telephoned the Samaritans who talked me out of it, so I guess they did save my life.
My own father committed suicide when I was only aged six, so I contemplated following his 'example'.
Of course I am now well pleased that I didn't do that, otherwise I would have missed out on a lot of very happy years.

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

Kenny what a terrible experience for a child it must have had a profound affect on you in many ways..

It's good to hear the 'Sam' were able to help you , I was one for many years...

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

I think I owe my life to Mum's neighbour when I was a baby. It was during the Coronation celebrations and Mum told her she was worried about me, so her neighbour phoned her doctor (I think that's what Mum told me). I'd had whooping cough and a collapsed lung.

Still a pathetic, whinging hypochondriac at times, full of aches and pains and whatever. But I'm here!!

Thanks, Mum's neighbour.

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

When I was a kid in the mid-40's, Liverpool was not the most healthy of places to be. I was taken into hospital to have my tonsils and adenoids removed, and picked up bonus doses of whooping cough and scarlet fever.

In my early 50's, I developed a very rare form of kidney failure, and was close to death.

On several occasions during my life, I nearly died but for the care of dedicated doctors and nurses. Had I been born 50 years earlier, I would have been pushing up the daises.

I should like to propose a toast to all of those unknown people who took care of me.
Thank you.

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

I can relate to that, somehow. My own brother showed slightly cut wrists to my Mum when he caught his wife in bed with someone. (Killed the marriage, thankfully!). But poor Mum went off to London where she walked herself into a daze, came home in such a poor state that Dad had to call a doctor round to her. She ended up on Valium for many years!

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

Two harrowing stories from my husbands childhood.
He lived close to the railway sheds and him and his friends played there. Long before the days of health and safety, although officially they were not allowed to play there.

One day one of his friends was caught under a shunting wagon and his leg was severed. My husband ran for help to a nearby funeral home. The owner of the home must have thought it to serious to wait for an ambulance and took him to hospital in a funeral wagon. The boy survived his trauma and went on to marry and have children. However, his wife cheated on him and he shot her.

Another violent incident in his boyhood.
His home was in a row of terraced houses. He was playing in the backs of the houses with friend. A neighbour asked the boys to run an errand to bring a bag of sugar for her. They set off but as they were passing the back of his house, his mother called him in to have a bath. His friend carried on the shop.

However there was a man lurking in the backs and he stabbed the poor boy in the neck several times, sadly he died.

They caught the murder, who was watching the boys funeral, it turns out he had killed two other boys previously.
The man was tried, found guilty and hanged.
So I suppose my husbands life was probably saved by his mother but under tragic circumstances.

Re: Has anyone saved your life?

I have had quite a few electric shocks in my time, often down to the dodgy wiring in our farmhouse when I was a kid! I am fortunate they didn't kill me! When I was 8 I had two very nasty ones. The plug had come off the TV lead and until my father could get another one the two bare wires were shoved into the socket! I went to put the wires in and touched them with my finger. I was thrown across the room. My mother went ballistic with my father. 'What would people think if 'R' had been killed!? Mother was always more concerned about when people thought than anything else!

The second incident was when I was running in and out of the water sprinkler on the lawn, I was suddenly routed to the spot and couldn't move. Pins and needles were going all through me. My father tried to grabbed me but was thrown back. He picked up a wooden broom and told me to grab the handle, which I managed to do, and he pulled me away from the area concerned. It turned out that the Germans, who had occupied our house during WW2, had run a cable from the barn to the house under the lawn, but it was only 6 inches below the surface. The rubber had perished and the water from the sprinkler had cause the lawn to become live!

When I was younger I had a less serious shock when two of my young uncles, who were unmarried at the time and enjoyed silly stunts, would sit on the electric fence around one of our fields seeing how long they could do so! They encouraged me to get on it too. I was about five at the time, the shock was unpleasant. They begged me not to tell my mother; I did very well where sweeties were concerned, for quite a while!