The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Outpost Cafe => Topic started by: godofthunder on July 16, 2009, 01:13:41 PM
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A bit numb from the experience. While on my lunch break sitting in my van a domestic altercation got out of hand, or was already out of hand by the time it spilled into the street. Might have been 50 feet from my vantage point. I am trying to process just what I have witnessed.
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Man, that's bad. Must be having quite an impact on you. All the best, take care!
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Wow Scott, I'm sorry you had to see that... I hope you can process it and put it away without too much trouble.
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Around the world people die and or killed every day, in horrible ways, often for no reason. I know this. I have never witnessed it first hand.
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I witnessed a suicide once, and know what you are talking about. I sat in a coffee shop for about an hour after and just couldn't process much of anything. It has been 15 years, and I can still remember the thing the same - the sounds, the color. You do get back to "normal" as you get back to doing what you do, but you will be in a weird place for a while. But it is true and it did help to think that there are people who see that every day, and veterans who saw tons of it.
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At the ripe old age of 17 I watched a guy take 5 slugs from a 357 being fired about 7-6 feet away. Oh yeah, I was an arms length away from the guy getting shot. The police had the shooter before he could get off the 6th round, there were cop cars present the entire time. We were waiting to get into a concert at the Eastown Ballroom in Detroit. When you're that close , I think it's actually a lot harder to deal with than when you're standing back a way with a birds eye view.
When you're in the picture , you don't really see the picture. You just thank God it wasn't you and move on.......... and that would be my advice to you also.
Rick
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Excrement happens, and then you die... read on...
I don't preach, and I am not a church-goer; I have never witnessed and never wish to witness such a thing, but as a driver with well over a million miles under his belt I have witnessed enough carnage to know that there but for the grace of God go I, and I have walked away from one I should not have...
A piece of advice from beyond the grave... I am sorry to say this as you live in a country where many can freely carry arms, and as it is becoming more common here, through illegal weapons, but I am often reminded by something my late father said to me years before I started writing up his stories...
"A person who does not believe in God has never been in fear of his life; I believe in God; there are no aethiests on a battlefield..." Kenny Stewart Senior
Not an easy one, Scott; I can only hope you sleep well, as that is when you are going to "process" this, and tomorrow is a brand new day; have a word with "the BIG man", wish the departed on their way, ask for protection for your loved-ones and nothing for yourself other than peace, leave the rest in his hands...
I do not believe in "God", but I believe that there is more to life than this...
My thoughts are with you...
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That is rough - sorry you had to see it.
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I guess no matter how much violent death we see on the news & in movies it's still shocking to see right before your eyes!! :o
Lots of sympathy.
Still, as a typical American with a morbid fascination with death I wanna hear details.
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I saw my mother die before my eyes two years ago - or what was left of her - but that was a mercy death and I was relieved that it was over. As a teenager, I witnessed a car accident that had happened seconds before on a road in Zaire, one passenger was decapitated and I was surprised how much blood with how much force was pumping out of his neck, it sprayed through the broken windows of the car several yards into the street. The image has stuck with me, but more as a fascinating phenomenon than as anything disturbing - generally, I'm not uncomfortable around dead people (if they are not loved ones or their death a surprise), I noticed that when I once witnessed a pathologist at work thinking to myself "I could probably do that if had studied medicine".
But what you have witnessed, Scott, is entirely different due to that sudden violence component. We see violence on TV and in movies all the time, we're saturated with it, but seeing someone get hit on the nose with it starting to bleed in real life is a different experience to seing a gruesome scene in some splatter movie where my mind is constantly feeding me "this is only make-believe" (I could never bring myself to watch a real snuff scene, I don't even like to watch boxing). I think it is a good thing that we are all (or most of us) able to make that distinction. So I hope this doesn't work too long in you, Scott, but there is no reason to deplore that you are feeling what you are feeling right now either. Good guy. Write a song about it.
Uwe
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Wow, those kinds of thing are indescribable. Sorry you had to witness something like that.
While driving on vacation through Indiana, we witnessed a horrible motorcycle accident that had just happened, the police were already there and they had blankets over the bodies. There was steam still coming from the motorcycle engines. Luckily my kids were asleep at the time.
The crazy part is a week later someone at my wife's job, a woman that my wife knows came back to work after a leave of absence. It turned out her brother in law died in a motorcycle accident in Indiana. It turns out he was one of the victims. Just crazy.
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I think all I can say at this point is I was at work sitting in my van eating lunch. Across the street from me a domestic spilled out in the the street. A young man (29 I later learned) was feibley trying to get away from a woman who was walking after him. I thought he was drunk. Lots of yelling and screaming on her part, I could not hear what was being said my windows were up and the AC on.They traveled a distance of about 25 -30 feet, they grappled he had his hand on her throat, it was at that point I knew this wasn't just a spat. They seperated and walked a few feet then he was down in the middle of the street and she was on top of him. He was stabbed in the neck, I don't know if that happened out side or in the house.
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Thinking of you Scott. I've experienced death at close quarters a few times in various forms. Deal with it as you feel you need to mate. My only advice (FWIW) is not to ignore it. We are all different.
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at this place i used to work i had to clean up after a shotgun slaying (shot in the face) but it really did not bother me. ??? i also found a couple of dead by natural causes persons on the premises. even so it's always a sad thing.
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Egads Scott, that's awful. My thoughts and prayers are with you. It's very sad how people handle their problems these days. Be careful out there!
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Thanks for all you support guys. I am fine. Where I work is not a good neighborhood, drugs, prostitution, etc. I am sad that he died that way but much of it is how it appears he lived his life. I knew it was a matter of time till I saw something like this. This is my last week there I start a new job on the 28th, I can't wait till I don't have to travel to that neighborhood.
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Scott, Sorry you had to see that.
Glad to hear you've got a new job lined up tho, that's great news!
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I'm sorry to know you saw that but am equally happy you won't have to go to that 'hood anymore!
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Good luck with the new job! Hope it turns out safer too!
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I saw my mother die before my eyes two years ago - or what was left of her - but that was a mercy death and I was relieved that it was over. As a teenager, I witnessed a car accident that had happened seconds before on a road in Zaire, one passenger was decapitated and I was surprised how much blood with how much force was pumping out of his neck, it sprayed through the broken windows of the car several yards into the street. The image has stuck with me, but more as a fascinating phenomenon than as anything disturbing - generally, I'm not uncomfortable around dead people (if they are not loved ones or their death a surprise), I noticed that when I once witnessed a pathologist at work thinking to myself "I could probably do that if had studied medicine".
But what you have witnessed, Scott, is entirely different due to that sudden violence component. We see violence on TV and in movies all the time, we're saturated with it, but seeing someone get hit on the nose with it starting to bleed in real life is a different experience to seing a gruesome scene in some splatter movie where my mind is constantly feeding me "this is only make-believe" (I could never bring myself to watch a real snuff scene, I don't even like to watch boxing). I think it is a good thing that we are all (or most of us) able to make that distinction. So I hope this doesn't work too long in you, Scott, but there is no reason to deplore that you are feeling what you are feeling right now either. Good guy. Write a song about it.
Uwe
Uwe I am very sorry to hear about your Mom, I know how hard that must have been. My Dad passed 11 years ago , Mom has been gone 12, both had long drawn out illnesses, it was had to watch them slip away.
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Scott, I'm glad the new job worked out. Sometimes a suit can bring good luck!
I saw both my parents die (six months apart). Natural causes, but it was a pretty hard time for me. I'm glad I was with them though, as I was able to be with them literally until the end. Losing your folks is one of those things everyone goes through, of course, but you never understand the impact until you go through it.
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Again as per all of us, good luck with the new job...
Lost my mum quickly from a burst peptic ulcer (underlying big "C"), back in '92, but we spent a month up on the Island in '01 waiting for my dad to pass when he had melanoma... we (me and my wife, Jackie) were with them both when they passed... going to come back to this later...
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I wasn't present when both of my parents passed away unexpectedly in Ohio, so I have some regrets over that. You just never know............
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I was dragged away from the PC to go and see Harry Potter...
I was with both of my parents when they passed and the circumstances could not have been more different...
My father passed quietly, not a word, just looking out of the window in the hospice, still looking for the reasons he survived the War - fate is an odd thing...
My mother, on the other hand (I've inherited her jaw gene) could talk the hind legs off a donkey (be thankful you're where you are - I could persuade the "mega" donkey [thank u DA] to go for a walk, afterwards, if only in desperation to get away from me in full rant mode...!)... before she fell silent and passed in the early hours of the morning (they "put her to sleep", the only way I can view it), one of my cousins was there with us, translating what she was saying (she had been "asleep" for most of the evening, but still talking, and only in Gaelic) - we were told that she was chatting to all sorts of people, like she was at a "ceilidh", a dance, or a party, but my cousin was a bit unnerved by it all as all the names she mentioned were people who had already passed, like they were welcoming her home... the last coherent word I heard her say was "purple", what ever that was meant to mean...
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Living out of state, I wasn't able to be there for my parents (Dad in 78 and Mom in 07). Both died suddenly and unexpectedly, so I didn't have a chance to see them or prepare emotionally for it. It's tough at first, but you keep moving forward and look on the bright side. Neither of them suffered at the moment and they passed away in peace. In the end, I still believe God is good, even when we don't understand it!
I was dragged away from the PC to go and see Harry Potter...
I was with both of my parents when they passed and the circumstances could not have been more different...
My father passed quietly, not a word, just looking out of the window in the hospice, still looking for the reasons he survived the War - fate is an odd thing...
My mother, on the other hand (I've inherited her jaw gene) could talk the hind legs off a donkey (be thankful you're where you are - I could persuade the "mega" donkey [thank u DA] to go for a walk, afterwards, if only in desperation to get away from me in full rant mode...!)... before she fell silent and passed in the early hours of the morning (they "put her to sleep", the only way I can view it), one of my cousins was there with us, translating what she was saying (she had been "asleep" for most of the evening, but still talking, and only in Gaelic) - we were told that she was chatting to all sorts of people, like she was at a "ceilidh", a dance, or a party, but my cousin was a bit unnerved by it all as all the names she mentioned were people who had already passed, like they were welcoming her home... the last coherent word I heard her say was "purple", what ever that was meant to mean...
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I took care of my father in his last days of Pancreatic Cancer. I was the only family member with him when he passed. My sister came in from California to see him, but got stuck in traffic and arrived two hours too late.
It was like birth in reverse, is the only way I could describe it. Things just started shutting down on him, one at a time till he passed. I am grateful for the time we were able to spend together.
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Amen, brother John... Amen...
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"Things just started shutting down on him ...".
Very well put, John. Exactly how it was with my mother. You could watch her body temperature drop in coma by the minute. A young doctor came in, looked at the computer graphs and said: "This won't last long anymore. Get ready to say good bye." And within the next ten minutes she stopped breathing, jerked once and was dead. You can immediately tell if someone is dead, I realized that then.