I was on my way to pay a bill over at the shopping center near SAM’s in Pleasant Grove, right off Samuel and Buckner. I pulled into the turning lane and ended up sitting there for about five minutes, listening to car horns blaring and people yelling out their windows, “Get out of the way!” Cars were backing up and swerving around a white Chevy truck that was just sitting there.
At first, I was just like everyone else, frustrated and ready for the truck to move. The traffic on Buckner flies off that bridge, so I figured someone was just being careless. But as I got closer, I noticed something was wrong. The driver wasn’t moving.
I drove into the lot but something in me said to turn around and check. So I parked on the edge of the lot, got out, and walked to the curb to see if anyone in the truck was moving. Nothing. I decided to stop four lanes of traffic — somehow, I managed to get the cars to pause so I could reach the vehicle.
When I finally got to the truck, I saw a man sitting there with his eyes wide open… but he wasn’t responding. I kept calling out to him, telling him to pull over, to talk to me if something was wrong. Nothing. His window was down, and it was raining, so at first, I thought he was soaked from the rain — but no, he was drenched in sweat.
I told him I was going to reach in and unlock the door and begged him not to hit me. Still no response. As soon as I opened the door, his foot slipped off the brake and the truck started rolling forward. I had to punch the brake with my hand and quickly throw it into park. That’s when I realized he was probably unconscious.
I pulled him out and started walking him across four lanes of traffic, not even thinking about the cars until other drivers realized what I was doing and stopped. I laid him down in the grass and ran back to park his truck out of the street.
Within seconds, people started pulling over to help. About six cars stopped, and three of the people who got out were nurses. We worked together to get him into the bed of his truck. Not even three minutes later, he started seizing — violently, for about four minutes — spitting and coughing up blood. The nurses and I rolled him on his side and kept him stable until paramedics arrived.
When they checked him, they found his blood sugar had dropped all the way to 17. He was in a diabetic coma and on the verge of dying. He had also suffered a mild stroke, which is why he had stopped in the middle of the street to begin with.
I can’t explain it except to say that God put me in the right place at the right time. If I hadn’t turned around, if the nurses hadn’t stopped, if help hadn’t come when it did… this man wouldn’t have made it.
Sometimes, we’re exactly where we’re meant to be — even when we don’t realize it. 🙏