A news story this week grabbed my attention for a very personal reason. It’s also grabbed the attention of web surfers and the popular blog Huffington Post. In Paris, an 18-month-old boy’s life was saved, in the most incredible way.
According to the BBC, one witness said he saw the child playing with a slightly older girl in a room of her family’s sixth-story apartment. They came perilously close to the large, open window several times. In one horrifying moment, the child lost his balance and fell out the window.
The boy fell six stories…and bounced off an awning below. Into a man’s waiting arms. Not just any man, but a doctor, who had been walking by with his family at that precise moment.
The doctor was able to immediately check for injuries and determine that there was nothing broken. He handed the child off to the ambulance when it arrived.
Not only was it a doctor who caught the child, but according to The Guardian, the owner of the cafe usually kept the awning closed.
France Info reported that the child and his three-year-old sister had been left alone in the apartment by negligent parents. Fortunately, someone was watching out for that child. Though I don’t think that will count when the parents defend themselves in front of a judge.
It reminded me that many years ago, before I was born, my family was watched over in a very similar manner.
When my Grandpa Sam was three years old, he climbed out the window of his family’s third-floor apartment in New York City, and onto the fire escape. He leaned over the edge to look. At that moment, he lost his balance and fell, three stories down.
He landed softly…in the arms of a bewildered passerby.
It wasn’t too long after he married my Grandma Sally that he told this story to her. My grandma was amazed…but not for the reason my grandpa thought.
My grandma told him that one day, when she was three years old, living in a three-story multi-family home in Patterson, New Jersey, she looked out her bedroom window to see her cousins playing in the backyard. She leaned out to get a better look. She lost her balance and fell.
She landed softly, on a blanket, held up by a clothesline and clothespins, part of a fort her cousins had built for their games.
My grandparents’ similar near-death experiences became part of our family lore. We always believed it showed that they were fated to meet.
Strangely, children being saved from the dangers of open windows happens more often than you would think. In the Only Human? section of our Angels On Earth magazine, Kathy Lapash of West Fargo, North Dakota shared her story.
But let’s not push it here, readers. Lock your windows with children around!
Congratulations to our Mysterious Ways giveaway winner, Cheryl Watson. This week, we’ll be giving one lucky commenter a 2011 One-minute Devotions Page-a-Day Calendar, shown here with our Editor-In-Chief:
Just comment below to enter!
