The Good Samaritan

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, …..” ----- Luke 10:33

     What makes a hero? I have always loved the bible story about the good Samaritan. I love all good samaritan stories. These people are my heroes. I think we all need help at some time in our lives. I am very grateful for the good samaritans who have come into my life. Good samaritans will show up a lot in the stories of my family's lives. And if we have the chance to be a good samaritan, what is more awesome than coming to the rescue when someone needs us the most?
     I love my children and I would give my own life to save them if I had to. There is no greater love than what a parent has for a child. I can't always be there to protect and look after my children so I pray every day for their safety and for other people to look out for and love them when I am not around. Those who have done that for me are my heroes. I will tell you 2 stories about Brett and the people who helped him.

     On a hot August day our family went up to Winter Park for a day of fun. During the summer this ski resort is a place to ride the alpine slide, climb climbing walls, play miniature golf, run through the maze and many other fun activities. Winn, and my sons Brett and Adam love to mountain bike so they would often take the chairlift up the mountain to ride down. On this particular day they decided to ride down an advanced trail. I played with the other kids at the base of the mountain. We were all supposed to meet at a particular time and place later. We waited and waited and they didn't come at the appointed time. Hours later Adam came down and told us that Brett had been hurt. He had hit a root in the trail on a sharp turn and shot off the trail and hit a tree. When he hit the tree, a tree branch went into his leg clear to the bone. His leg was spurting out blood pretty fast. Brett had gotten separated from his Dad and brother when he got hurt. It was another biker who found him bleeding by the side of the trail. This man stopped and tied off his leg with a bike inner tube. This man summoned more help to get him down the mountain. Adam rode up on the scene and he rode down to tell us to meet them in the first-aid station. By the time Brett got down the mountain he was sick, lightheaded and in a lot of pain. The people working in the clinic cleaned his wound, slowed the bleeding, wrapped his leg and told us to take him straight to the doctor when we got home.

He felt light-headed and sick and he was in a lot of pain

     We drove home and I took him to urgent care because our doctor's office was closed. He was x-rayed and the doctor spent a lot of time flushing out the hole in his leg to make sure there were no wooden pieces left in his leg. After it was cleaned out they stitched up his leg. He was in a lot of pain and could hardly walk for a few days. His leg swelled up and got really red and we got worried it was infected. It eventually healed up. I am so grateful for this man who stopped to help Brett. This man disappeared after Brett was brought down and I felt bad I couldn't meet and thank him. He was my hero. 

recovering at home

   This wasn't the only time Brett needed a good samaritan. He has needed them often at college when he has broken bones and gotten bad sprains or on camping trips, etc. 

After another mountain biking crash

A very bad sprain he couldn't walk on for a few days

Just one of many

     Brett went skiing with his Dad one winter day. They love to race each other down the mountain. As Winn went sailing down the mountain he skied past Brett. Brett is very competitive and doesn't like anyone to beat him. This is Brett's account of that day, “Sometimes an act of kindness can make a big difference in our lives. Last week a total stranger helped me. I was skiing with my Dad when my Dad passed me and gave me a little shove and kept going. (Winn claims he gave Brett a little nudge and Brett tried to get him with his pole. Who know with their desire to win the race.)  I lost my balance and fell breaking my nose with my pole. I tried to ski further but I was bleeding heavily all over the snow so I had to stop. People kept passing by until finally, on the brink of me passing out, a couple stopped to help me out. The wife went to get the ski patrol while the man flagged people down for kleenex. The toboggan took me down to the clinic and there the man stayed with me for a few hours to keep me company and keep my mind off my pain. I was very grateful for the help of these strangers.” Brett had rammed his pole into his lip and nose hard enough he had a big swollen lip (solid black on the inside) and a broken nose. 

    This couple paid for ski tickets and they could have easily skied by him like a lot of other people did and figure someone else could stop and help him. Once he was safely in the clinic, this couple could have left and gone on skiing but instead they stayed with him for hours not getting to have the fun ski day they had planned. They put Brett first. I wish I could give them a hug. I wish they knew just how thankful I am. Winn couldn't find Brett and just thought he had lost track of him, so he went on skiing. At the end of the day, when he couldn't find him, he thought to check the clinic. Brett was miserable for the next week and missed a few days of school. His nose was broken across the top and on the bottom connecting his nose to his face. He kept picking up and moving the bottom of his nose when it got out of place, which gave us the chills. During his recovery, Dallin got too rough and re-broke it after it had started to heal. It was painful.

    We wrote this couple a thank you card and Brett wrote them a letter. It did not seem like enough. These were two more heroes in our lives. 

This was a post card sent to Brett by the ski patrol ^

A copy of the letter Brett sent to the people who helped him ^

     Winn and I went on a trip to Utah to visit relatives. On our way home Winn wanted to go on a different road than the one we usually travel on. I tried to talk him out of it because he usually picks narrow curvy roads that take longer. Winn likes to see new scenery. I would rather just get home and not have it take more than the usual 9 to 10 hours. I wanted to put up a fight but the thought came into my head that this was the way we needed to go. After Winn had traveled on this narrow road for a while, I noticed movement a ways off to the side of the road. I yelled at Winn to stop and I told him that I thought I saw someone standing on the roof of a car down a small embankment waving his arms. Winn stopped and turned around. There was a man standing on a dented up car with broken windows waving his arms. Another man was sitting on the ground bleeding. One of these young men spoke very little English and the other one spoke only Spanish. It was obvious they had been driving too fast on the curvy road and their car had rolled when they over-corrected on a turn. This road did not have many people traveling on it so they had been there for a while. We got out our first aid kit and bandaged them up the best we could. They were both shaken up. We gave them some of our food to eat and water to drink and drove them back to the nearest town so they could call family for help (we were in an area where cell phones didn't work). We dropped them off at a gas station to use the phone. I went inside to use the rest room and passed by these two young men again. The one who had gotten hurt the worst said something in Spanish to me and his eyes filled with tears. I gave him a big hug (the mother in me couldn't help it). As I hugged him I pictured his mother somewhere praying for him like I have prayed for my children.

“And he went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”-----Luke 10:34

“Which now of these three, thinketh thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”------Luke 10: 36, 37

Note: As I was writing my last post and right before I posted it, Brett put up as a status on Facebook, “I guess no matter how many years you've been skiing, you can still hit a tree.” I called him up to see how he was and he told me he hit his thigh pretty hard and it “hurt wicked bad”, as he put it. But he skied 4 more runs because it was a good ski day and he just skied down one-legged. He borrowed his roommate's walker to get around after he got home. So does he ever play it safe? Not in my opinion. Will he need more good samaritans to help him in the future? I wish not, but I think he will because I know Brett. I'm glad he thinks scars are cool because he has plenty of them.