Jumper In The Fog

I woke up earlier than I wanted to this morning.  Still, I ended up running a bit late to work.  Pretty much the story of my life there.  Me and time don't get along real well.  They said it would be foggy this morning and it sure 'nuff was.  I was not looking forward to the trip to work.  My morning commute is different now that the house is sold.  I have a couple of routes I can take so I took the shorter one.  Given the fog, the likelihood of a wreck was significantly increased. Right after I swapped one highway for another I saw the sea of break lights.  I contemplated getting on the access road for a minute but as I got closer I could see the flashing lights.  They weren't that far ahead so I figured the delay wouldn't be too bad.  In fact, it looked like traffic was moving in both lanes, they probably had the wreck off to the side already or it wasn't serious and everyone had pulled over.

The closer I got to the "accident" site things started to get a little strange.  It appeared that the "scene" was pretty close to an overpass.  Then I saw a police car down on the access road and the officer got out and seemed to be concentrating on something down there.  Getting a bit closer I saw several officers on the bridge.  A bunch of them kept looking over the edge.  As I got closer I started looking for guard rail damage.  Somebody must have gone over the edge.  No damage, no skid marks.  Then they stopped traffic for another cop on the opposite side so he could cross.  No wreckers, no ambulance.  I'm on the bridge and almost to the officers but don't see any damage or skid marks or busted up vehicles of any kind.

Then I saw her.  There were about 6 officers surrounding her.  One was DPS.  He was talking to her in a very animated fashion.  Lots of hand action.  She had blond hair.  Long, wavy blond hair.  She was whipping her head from side to side, trying to see the officers on either side of her.  I think she was wearing something blue but I am not as certain of that.  I saw her face and hair.  I was less than 10 feet from her as I passed.  She was sitting on the edge of the bridge about to jump.  The officers were trying to talk her down and the guy below was stopping traffic.

There was nothing I could do.

Except pray.  So I did.

I felt like complete crap after that.  Just driving away from something that serious seemed so wrong.  I know there wasn't anything of benefit I could have offered there that wasn't already being done but it still just seemed wrong somehow.  I kept praying.  It was all I could do.  Once I got to work I told one coworker the story and started hitting the net for any news of the event.  There was none.  No local stations were reporting it.  I didn't eat much today.  Seeing something like that takes something out of you.  Not knowing the ending was maddening.  I even emailed one of the news stations asking about it but heard nothing.  Since most of the day has gone by and no report has surfaced I assume she was talked down.  I would find it hard to comprehend that had she jumped no report would have come from it whether she had lived through it or not.  I guess it has to be a slow news day to report an averted suicide.  I suspect that DPS officer didn't think it was a slow day.  I sure didn't.

I hope they got her help.  I hope her reasons for thinking nothing was worth living for could be worked through.  Seeing someone a decision away from death shocks the system.  Makes you ask some questions and puts things in a different perspective.  I suppose for myself it confirmed in me the great value of life.  Then time marched on...