Death can happen anywhere

So, I watched someone die in the middle of our street last night. No one special, just a father, a husband, trying to make a living. He and his son had a small lawn cutting business, and they were cutting the grass at one of our neighbor’s houses. I saw them out there earlier. I was doing my yard work too.

This was the full works day for me, cutting, edging, trimming, and cleanup. I even did the angle cut to make it look nicer. It didn’t take long before I had that Mickey Mouse sweat stain going on the front of my sleeveless t-shirt. It was another hot and humid day in Goose Creek, and I was trying to get my yard work done early. I figured I’d be done before noon.

I was surprised to see someone cutting the grass at Johnny’s place. I thought maybe they were on vacation, and hoped that nothing was wrong with Johnny. When I saw the two guys working out in the yard, I couldn’t believe they had long pants on. It was definitely not the type of work to be doing in long pants. The Mexican guys that take care of the subdivision are always wearing long pants, but I figured they were used to it. I think Mexicans can handle heat better, part of their heredity or something. I’m half Mexican, and I love the heat. But they’re also half my age. When I was wrestling in high school, I not only wore long pants, I wore plastic sweats to work out every bit of water weight that I could. In the end, that was probably not the healthiest thing to do, but a lot of us did it to be able to wrestle in the lowest weight class possible.

Now, when I’m out in the yard, I wear the least amount that I can, and I drink as much water as possible. I’ve learned in my old age, that it’s important to stay hydrated, especially when you are active and living in a warm climate.

When I was out front edging, the guy and his son were driving by and he pulled over to talk to me. He said, “let me give you some advice.”

I said “what’s that?”

He said, “don’t let what happened to me, happen to you. I just passed out by the bushes. I was working, when all of the sudden I started seeing rainbow lights and my heart started racing, and I passed out.”

“Wow, are you okay? You need to stay hydrated and drink a lot of water. That’s why I’m out here early. I couldn’t believe that you two were out there in long pants. It’s too hot for that.”

“I just wanted to maintain a professional appearance. When I come back, I’ll put shorts on.”

“Are you okay?”

He said he was going home to cool off, and he’d come back later to finish. I told him thanks for the advice, and went back to my work (after chugging some more water). I felt fine, and figured that the guy had just gotten overheated. I saw the grass on Johnny’s sidewalk, and figured that they just had to come back and finish the clean up.

Later, as the wife and I were having dinner, I thought I could hear them working in the yard again. I guess he waited until the sun started going down, to come back and finish.

When we were cleaning up the kitchen, we heard the woop-woop siren of a fire truck coming down our street.  Immediately I said “I hope that guy didn’t have a heart attack!” But he had.

He was lying in the street, next to his truck. One of the firemen was doing CPR. They had cut up one of the guy’s pant legs, and his shirt was open. His skin was pale, and I could see his belly jiggling as the fireman was urgently driving his palms in and out on the man’s chest. The man’s son couldn’t watch. I think he was in shock, and just didn’t know what to do. I said let’s pray for your dad, and quietly prayed with the young man that the Lord would be over the situation and put his healing touch on this man’s father. I prayed that He would be with the family and help them right now.

The EMS people put the man on a stretcher, and moved him into the EMS truck. They would not let the son into the truck with his dad. It was apparent that the father had died, because no one was moving very fast. There were no sirens, and the truck wasn’t racing off anywhere.

It’s not every day that you watch someone die. This could have been my own dad, 40-some years ago. His second heart attack happened at someone’s wedding reception. That would have been a heck of a way to remember your wedding, having someone die on the dance floor. But I’m not sure where he died. My parents left to go to a wedding that night, but my dad never came home. I was 14. I heard this young man tell someone that he was 20. He didn’t seem that old to me. Now, he would have to grow up.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for the family. I also felt guilty, like I should have been smart enough to tell the guy to have a doctor check him out when I talked to him earlier in the day. He didn’t say that he was having chest pains or anything, so I figured he just overheated. Now that I’ve read a little bit about heat stroke on the internet, that could ultimately have been the cause of death.

I still think of what he said. “Don’t let what happened to me, happen to you.” When it comes to death, it just happens. I think it will surely happen to me someday, whether I let it or not.