Have you ever received a life-changing phone call?
Some have. Some have yet to.
I received mine two years ago from over 2,000 miles away. Awakened at the early morning hour of 4 a.m. by my phone ringing, my partner entered the living room to find it was my father’s name displayed across the screen. The moment he told me who was calling, I knew something was terribly wrong.
The last phone call I received in those early morning hours was from a dear friend drowning in tears; he had just received word that a past mentor of ours & the pastor of his wedding, had killed himself. So my muscle memory told me this call was too born from a dire situation.
I answered.
Wide awake now as my father spoke, though what he said played out like a dream, a movie in my head. Beau, one of my brothers, had been electrocuted and was in an ICU in critical condition.
Beau is a twin, who lived in Los Angeles with his other half, Skyler. They are actors. So with my father’s first mention of the news, my imagination drew them on a set where the electrical went haywire, Beau in its line of fire. Reality sketched the story a bit differently…
Beau and Skyler had just returned home from a gym session, and were sitting down to eat when they heard the most horrific sound they had ever heard while living on Magnolia. They had heard accidents from outside before but this one topped all others. Whatever happened on the outer premise of their building sounded like an explosion of war, and like the heroes they are, they flew to the scene.
Across the street from their dwelling, they spotted a vehicle wrecked in a neighbor’s yard. With it, the car swiped a light pole, a fire hydrant, and from what appeared, a woman. Water flooded the street quickly now, and my brothers’ first concern was the woman. They wished to make sure she was alright and rushed over as her first responders. What happened next is the part which changed my life forever. What happened next is why lightning storms, at times, induce tears in my eyes.
Beau bent down, reaching out to the woman in uncertainty, and when he touched her, he shot back off his feet by thousands of volts of electricity. The woman was being electrocuted. And now my brother was being electrocuted too.
Beau tells a very powerful story of what happened to him in the moments to follow, which I will leave to his doing. I will say that he conveys the sensation which took place in his physical body is the most pain he has ever experienced, as it felt his heart would indeed explode. But it didn’t. Beau’s beautiful heart pushed him through against all odds, and I mean all odds.
His twin and another responder pulled him out of the water upon realizing something was wrong, and Beau rose to his feet once more with a determination to keep others out of the water, away from being victimized. He had seen death and he wished it upon no one. There live so many little pieces to this story to unfold. For now, it is important to know this: two beautiful, loving women passed on August 22, 2012. Irma Zamora and Stacey Schreiber lived and died as Good Samaritans who gave their best efforts to make a difference in the world. They are heroes because they thought outside of themselves when they sought to help another. My brothers are heroes for the very same cause.
Not everyone looks at it this way. In fact, some (like many States in the USA) say they should have kept to their own business and not reached out to help another. I call bullshit. If we are going to live in a world where we are not encouraged to help another, then what do we really have anyway? The past two years have taught me the more we give of ourselves, the more we help others, the more we actually give a fuck about making a difference, the more life is worth living. I know this because it is the principle Irma and Stacey died for. It is the principle by which my brothers embody. I know because it is how our parents raised us. And like my partner reminds me so eloquently, “You can’t teach give a fuck.”
Well here’s to hoping there is hope el mundo still can.
