Tobin S.
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Sat Apr-02-11 10:04 AM
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Stories From the Road: The Body |
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A friend called me last night and he seemed somewhat distressed. I'll call him Joe. He started by asking about something that we experienced a long time ago. I guess we were about 14 or 15. He's 37 and I'm 38 now.
One day we were hanging out at his place. It was in the summer. His dad came home and said that there was a bad accident down at a train crossing that had just happened. It was about a mile away. Joe and I decided we wanted to see it. Joe's mother asked us not to go, but we hopped on our bikes anyway to go check it out.
We got down to the accident and the cops and an ambulance were there. They had taped off the scene. A small crowd of neighborhood people had gathered around. There was a smashed up car and the driver's door was hanging open. We could see some cops and the rescue squad working a little further down from the crossing. What it looked like had happened was that the driver of the car decided to race the train and beat it at the crossing. The train collided with the front end of the car and threw the driver out of the driver side door and under the train.
Joe and I watched as the authorities worked further down the crossing. The medics came back to the ambulance and got a stretcher and wheeled it down to where the body was. They then picked up what was still intact from the man and put him on the stretcher. He had been severed from between his neck and left shoulder down to the right side of his waist. As they picked him up, gore was hanging out of his body from where the upper half of him had been. Then we watched as they put the rest of him in several small, plastic bags. They piled everything up on the stretcher, threw a sheet over it and wheeled him into the ambulance. They took him right by us and one of his feet was poking out from under the sheet. He was wearing hiking boots. I don't know why, but another detail that I'll always remember is that he had been wearing a baseball hat. It was sitting in the middle of the street and the cops had drawn a chalk circle around it.
It was later determined that he was drunk at the time of the accident.
So, back to last night. Joe asked me how that experience had affected me. I told him that it was something that I'll never forget, and it made a big impression on me at the time, but it didn't really bother me now days. He couldn't help but think that the experience had traumatized him and had further repercussions later in life. Then he related to me that if he were to die he wanted me to be sure that he was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Ohio River near a spot where we had done a lot of camping and fishing when we were kids. He looked back on those times as the best times of his life.
Joe sounded like he was talking like his life was already over. There were no more good times to be had. He was just putting in his time until death called. I have to do something for him. He's definitely depressed and it sounds like he's doing some soul searching. I lived in the place where Joe is right now for a long time and I think I know how he feels. We live 50 miles apart now, but I think it's time to make a trip back to my old stomping grounds and pay Joe a visit. Maybe take him on a fishing trip down on the Ohio river.
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CaliforniaPeggy
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Sat Apr-02-11 11:10 AM
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I think you have the best ideas...
And this is sure one of them.
He has gotten hung up on what happened on that long-ago day, and now it's overwhelming to him. He needs someone to shake him loose from that memory and get him going forward into a better future.
You are that someone.
You might gently urge him to get professional help too...
Have a wonderful fishing trip. You'll be in my thoughts...
:hug:
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Tobin S.
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Sat Apr-02-11 11:16 AM
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I guess that old scene is on an endless loop playing in his mind right now. And the idea that he's thinking about his own death...it seems like the end is all he is thinking about. You are right in that he could use some professional help. I think he's needed it for a long time for other issues, but he doesn't have health insurance and can't afford the counseling he needs right now.
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Tikki
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Sat Apr-02-11 11:18 AM
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3. Like a friend, let him know.. |
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Edited on Sat Apr-02-11 11:20 AM by Tikki
how your life has taken some changes and unexpected turns. Change can be an amazing trip. No one can be there like a friend, especially a friend who has been there since childhood. I bet everyone has had their down times and I bet everyone has appreciated a friend on their side.
Let him know that you can't think of any reason why his final wishes couldn't be full-filled....but way on down the road.
Friends Rock...
Tikki
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Tobin S.
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Sat Apr-02-11 11:23 AM
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4. I told him that I'd handle it if it came to that |
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I should have also told him that he also probably has a lot of years ahead of him. He's just kind of stuck right now. I'll see what I can do.
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Thu Apr 25th 2024, 10:38 AM
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