Story of the Week
April 29, 2013
This week, we have a story written by Glen Watts, from Nanaimo, BC. Glen has recently been enrolled in literacy classes at Literacy Central Vancouver Island, in Nanaimo.
Glen’s Story
by Glen Watts
Hero: a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble quality.
A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or who has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.
I have received a medal of bravery for trying to save the life of an 86 year old man who drove into the Millstream River. I will be receiving a medal of bravery from the Governor General of Canada in Ottawa later this year. People call me a hero. In any circumstances or situation, if anybody needed my help, I would try my best to do what I could do to help them.
I was the first on the scene. Seeing the car floating was pretty alarming. My first thought was, whoever is in the car is probably injured or trapped. I then dove into the icy cold water and swam out to the car. I noticed there was an elderly man hunched over in the driver’s seat. I tried knocking on the window. The man responded and looked over at me. I yelled at him to try and unlock the door. He tried, but it wouldn’t open.
At around this time an off-duty officer and another young man came to my aide. A fourth man showed up. I yelled to the shore and asked for a rock. I believe it was the off-duty officer who swam out with the rock. He made several attempts to break the side back window but could not do it. I then asked him for the rock. I tried to break the window and could not do it. Then frustration set in and somehow I got up on the back and smashed the back window. I climbed through the small shattered hole.
By the time I had gotten into the car the water level was up to the man’s chest. I then tried to go for the seatbelt. I was wrestling around and then noticed the man’s head had dropped and he began to take in water. I attempted to keep his head above the rising water while trying the seatbelt again. At this time the water was coming in fast. The car was going under and there was not much more that I could do. It is a pretty hard thing to do and deal with when you know somebody is dying in front of you and there is nothing you can do. I deal with it every day when I think about it. And no one will know what that’s like unless you’ve been through it.
Special thanks to tutor Kathryn Savoie
[This story was taken with permission from In Our Words 2011, a collection of writings by students at Literacy Central Vancouver Island, in Nanaimo.]
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