There are dumb asses (and angels) amongst us

Really, what more should I have to say than that?!!! Well since this is a blog allow me to elaborate.

Two days ago it my SIL and I decided to go for a walk at lunch over the walking bridge and back. It was a beautiful sunny day and the river was so calm that is was like a sheet of glass. We walked across to the north side and over the Nashwaak River walking bridge for a few minutes, saw a garbage can in the water (most likely put there by the spring flood) and walked back to the south side.

As we were nearing the south end of the bridge a very slim, young woman walked past us in the opposite direction. I couldn't help but notice the way she was holding her hands. They were pulled up at 90 degrees and her fingers were all bent in a strange way like she was very agitated. She also looked so very desperate and full of despair. My SIL noticed all of this at the same time and mentioned that something didn't seem right. Just then we both looked behind us in the direction of the young woman.

She put her foot on the first rung of the wooden railing. My SIL says in a rushed ton "holy F*@#! She's gonna jump!!" And just then the woman quickly scaled the whole railing and threw her leg over the top and climbed down the other side. My SIL started running toward her and I ran toward a pair of girls and asked for a cell phone. I began dialing 911 while my SIL grabbed the girl's wrist so hard that she probably still has the marks. The girl was balanced with her legs on the metal that runs beneath the bridge in the position to let go and just drop into the water. My SIL begged the girl not to jump and was able to convince the girl to come back to the other side of the railing. Meanwhile I spoke to 911, gave a description of the girl and stood a bit away for fear of scaring the girl and causing her to try and jump again. My SIL made her sit on the bridge and sat with her trying to get her to see that she would be missed, that nothing is that bad and that people did care.

When the police finally arrived (seemed like forever but I'm sure it was not that long) she told them that she stopped taking her medications due to how they made her feel. The police had been looking for her since she left the care home where she was living because she and her care worker had gotten into an argument over her not taking her meds. Despite the lack of compassion projecting from the police officers the girl went with them to the hospital to get help anyway.

After they left my SIL and I still had to walk back. We had a hard time because the adrenalin was leaving our bodies at that moment and the reality of what just happened began to sink in. Had we not turned around she would be dead. Had my SIL not grabbed her wrists in time she would be dead.

We wanted to see her and show her that we cared. We wanted her to know that people out there want her to get better and value her life.

This is where the dumb ass comes in. The hospital would not allow us to see her because we are not family. I understand privacy and all of that but we just kept this girl alive, we care about her and not in a morbid "I wanna gawk at the girl that wanted to kill herself" way either. We actually genuinely want to make sure she is going to make it and not just get sent home and find herself on the bridge again when we aren't there to save her. They did tell us she was resting comfortably...of course she is, she's all hoped up on sedatives.

There was something that told us to turn around when we did. Something bigger than us was at work. Maybe she was meant to be a lesson for us. We are meant to take something from this and apply it somewhere else.

There have been 3 incidents of dumbassery in my life in the last 3 days but I'm just too tired to write about the other 2 right now. Maybe some other time I will fill you in.