When Someone I Barely Knew Helped Me During a Seizure

Eleven years later, and it’s still in her mind like it happened yesterday. Every detail is vivid.

The moment when my friend said, “I think something is wrong with Casey,” to the moment where she was on her knees with my head in her lap. Holding my hand, not knowing what to do. I didn’t realize someone who barely knew me at all cared like that. I didn’t know someone like me could impact a person in such a way that it shifted their life.

She was only 35 with two small children at home. She cared enough to put me before herself and make sure I was safe. The moment she looked at me with my head upwards at the ceiling, eyes and mouth open, not knowing what was going on to the moment when I was seizing in her lap. Five minutes seemed like forever to her, from the moment she got me to the ground to the moment I was in the ambulance. She was doing the best she could. While taking my shoulders, she placed me on her lap ensuring I would have a gentle landing. She took one step further and held my hand even though she knew I was unconscious.

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I shed tears because I know someone cares. Someone who was not obligated to help poured out their heart to save me. I feel a sense of security, compassion and love that cannot be broken. At that moment, I felt so many characteristics of God, my Father. I felt He had me then, He cared enough to hold my hand when everything else was spinning out of control. He had me. Just as she did.

Then reinforcements came. She was still with me when the nurse came in and saw the damage. She saw damage that could be fixed. With the dial of 911, help was on the way.

She couldn’t come with me, but her friend could. This friend rode with me; she was on my right overlooking me. I asked what happened; she said I would be OK. I felt gentleness, kindness, compassion and love. From that day on, it wasn’t only my life that was changed but hers, as well as many others.