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People Who've Had Their Lives Saved By Someone Who Died Saving Them Share Their Story

People Who've Had Their Lives Saved By Someone Who Died Saving Them Share Their Story

Saving someone's life is an amazing thing.

But when it's at the cost of someone else's, it becomes a completely different story.

And while these tragedies come with a silver lining, it's important to always keep that sacrifice in mind.

Here are some of the most incredible and heartbreaking stories from the people of Reddit.

One Redditor asked Loveisforclosersonly asked:

Redditors who had their lives saved by someone that gave up theirs, what's the story?

When a comment actually changes someone's perspective.

"4 years ago to the day a boy committed suicide and his parents decided to donate his organs. 4 years ago tomorrow I received his heart."

finding_trevor

"3, almost 4 years ago, my boyfriend committed suicide and his family immediately donated every part of him, eyes, skin, organs, bones... And I was of course grateful that they made the right choice, but bitter that I never got to see his body because he was taken apart so quickly."

"For some reason, even though I've heard amazing stories about body part donations, THIS was the comment that I think has given me peace."

Mister_IceBlister

This is so tragic.

Giphy

"Not me, but a friend of a friend I had many years back. I'll call the kid Zeke. Zeke and a buddy were by our old intermediate school and hanging out by a drainage pond in the surrounding wetlands, no idea what its for or what it's used for but basically it's a super strong whirl pool that will take you under without a second thought."

"Zeke, from what I recall (forgive me, this was 12-13 years ago) was dared to jump in the whirl pool, he did, and he basically got taken under immediately. Zeke bobbing above and under the water started screaming for help. Two men (teachers who were father and son) who frequently walked their dogs around the school premises noticed this and rushed to save this kid's life. They both jumped in and got Zeke back to land, unfortunately both of them that day were taken by this aggressive water and died.""

"I'm not so sure how Zeke took it, I was never real close to him in school and the relationship we did have was pretty much pass and repass. From what I observed though, it would suggest he took it pretty hard and never totally got over it. Of course anyone would understand why.

19dingus19

Glad he got clean after that.

"Not quite sure if this counts but almost 7 years ago I was into some hard shit and my best friend did it with me. Not sure why, he was sick with a couple different long term illnesses, so we both know it wasn't good for him (hell it's not good in general, don't do drugs kids) but I was a stupid kid and we did everything together."

"One night my life kinda imploded on itself and we doped up more than we ever had before. I was about to do another round when he tried talking me down. I made some excuse about not wanting my it to go to waste, which was bs I could've saved it for later. So he offered to use it up so that it wouldn't go to waste."

"If I had taken that I'd have likely died of an overdose. He actually did, found out when I woke up. I've been sober ever since. He tried so hard to save me for so many years, I hope he knows that he really did."

AngelGuideIndi

Very brave of him.

"I was in an armed robbery. He pointed the gun at me and my boyfriend tackled him taking three to the chest and one to the head. The kid panicked and fled. He is now doing 30 years and I was the sole witness at his trial."

0tterpop

"Wow. I can only hope to be one tenth as brave as your boyfriend."

bunyipbrown

How traumatic.

Giphy

"Not to me, but a family friend. There were 2 adults (barely, like 18 and 19) and 3 kids in the back ages 2, 6 and 7. They were driving back from the store to a family gathering and a drunk driver hit them, I don't know how but the guy in copilot jump back and protected the kids from the impact."

"He passed away but the 3 kids were fine, the driver died too, the drunk guy fled. So when cops came to scene they found the little kids on the dead guys arms."

PrisAustin

What a horrible birthday.

"I was up at a friend's place and they went to a large funeral of someone I didn't know and this is the story:"

"Three or four daughters were swimming and got swept out by the tide. One by one the father rescued them. He managed to rescue all of them but drowned saving his last child."

"The worst part of the story is that one of them had their birthday that day."

Lone_Digger123

Amazing people.

"I have two. They aren't me, if that's alright (seeing a lot of others in this technically-not-me category so I'm going for it), but they both stuck to me pretty hard."

  • "My uncle died trying to protect a couple who was being robbed in a restaurant. Some gangbangers came in and started to harass the people in the restaurant and guns were pulled. My uncle knew one of the guys since high school and figured he could talk him down from hurting anyone else. No one else got hurt except him. Never got to know him but heard he was an exceptionally cool dude."
  • "My teacher in kindergarten was diagnosed with cancer at a point it was aggressively treatable, but also found out she was pregnant. She needed to get an abortion before she could start any cancer treatments but she didn't want to have the abortion; the cancer was terminal by the time the baby arrived, and she left behind her husband and three children."

"What hit me especially hard with my teacher is that my family remembered her becoming more easily agitated and stressed at the end of the school year, and we found out after her death, from her teacher's aid from that year, that it was around the time she was diagnosed with the cancer and choosing to have the baby over her own life. My mom got into several arguments with her for being too "insensitive" and mean to her students towards the end of the school year; teacher never told her or anyone about her condition."

terminallyamused

Wow.

Giphy

"Well, it was back in 1996, I was walking across a railroad track when all of a sudden I was struck from behind by a wheel chair. As I turned around a Via Rail train instantly blew away the 74 year old lady that just saved my life. I was so grateful, I helped retrieve her corpse from the oak tree 60 yards down the track."

Ivereadit2

Incredible.

"Not me, but my grandmother. She was in a concentration camp in WWII with her family, and the day before her and her bunks were to be gassed, a soldier from the Latvian version of the SS allowed the group to escape in the night. When my dad tried to find info about the soldier when doing his genealogy research, he found out that the soldier was shot for that."

NicaNocturnal

"Sometime it's hard to put into words the depth of emotion a story like this causes."

rimkoala123

That's so sad.

"I had two friends till year 5 who were my only friends at the time. We were walking down the street, in India, to get to the shops when two people showed up and tried to grab me. They both pushed me back and they were stabbed."

"I don't really remember much, but my parents have recently revealed that I was also stabbed, my brain shut down for a bit and lost quite a bit of my memory from before I was 10, but they both died in hospital."

apple-red

Woah.

Giphy

"I have an old coach who's wife grew up in Vietnam. She once told me a story about a time she was playing soccer with some friends from her village around the age of 10. The ball got kicked out of bounds into some brush on the edge of the field that they were playing in."

"As her and one of her friends raced to the ball, her friend was faster and reached the ball first. As she came to a halt in front of the ball she stepped on an old land mine, completely vanishing out from in front of my coaches wife."

Goose_whitehead

Scary.

"My friend was drunk and tried to kill me while we were on a sidewalk. He came stumbling at me with a knife but he misstepped and fell onto the road, where a car ran over him. I still feel guilty."

Imapyromanic

The Help Me Look!

"My son cut his lip, he was maybe 2. Took him to the ER to get stitched. When it came time I asked the doctor what I should do. He said nothing, you're his Dad, you are the safe one we give him to after. They bring in two nurses to hold him down and start."

"He's screaming bloody murder looking at me a definite HELP ME look. I know they weren't hurting him in an evil way but it took everything I had to stop myself from grabbing them and say Christ, knock it off!!!"

JohnnyBrillcream

ON FIRE!!

"My cousin was driving his daughter to a new state for her new teaching job when his car was hit by a semi. The daughter was trapped in the car, which was ON FIRE, but somehow her dad broke through a blocked door and dragged her out. Later in the hospital he was found to have a severed spine and main artery."

"He didn't make it. She's (physically) fine. I don't know if dragging her out made a difference as to whether he would have lived or not, but I know he would have done it either way and he definitely saved her life, so I feel like it counts."

LaMadreDelCantante

Scarred

"Not exactly on topic but I'm named after my father's friend and he died in a bombing during the troubles, he had seen the bomb and ran back to save the little old lady that owned the place. She got a scar along her cheek and he slammed into the wall and killed by the blast. I need to remember to live better to do him justice."

BadgerUltimatum

Saved

"Not me but some old Vietnam veteran at my local VFW was saying his life was saved by an 18 year old that got drafted. He said he wouldn’t be here today if the kid didn’t insist on heading into a tunnel first. I think that’s right. May have gotten me veterans mixed up."

HorizontalTwo08

Spirits

"I knew a guy who was a complete a**. Anyways he has a pancreas and liver transplant. Did a complete 180. Got married had 3 beautiful daughters and became such a great guy. Since I've signed my organ donor card. I'm convinced it was someone's spirit in those organs that changed him."

louloulovesmakeup1

Working Away

Working Homer Simpson GIFGiphy

"My dad gave up his life in the sense that he constantly works himself to the bone to provide for our family. He gave up all his hobbies so that he could give us education, shelter, and food. He doesn’t complain and he doesn’t ask for much."

linjaes

Wild

"Not me, but a close family friend. They were on a safari in Africa, my friends younger brother was trapped in a gorge. His father ran down and safely got him up to higher ground but was trampled by a herd of wildebeests in the process."

pretend_shower

These were some lucky folks.

Do you have a similar experience to share? Let us know in the comments below.

People Describe The Most Historically Significant Event They've Ever Witnessed In Person

Reddit user FictionVent asked: 'What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?'

Aircraft losing control
Richard R. Schünemann/Unsplash

Do you ever wonder what it must've been like to experience major events throughout world history when reading about them in text books?

But if you take pause and actually think about it, we're living through many newsworthy current events that succeeding generations will be talking about long after we're gone.

Reading about them online or in newspapers is one thing. But seeing them happen unfold before our eyes is another.

Curious to hear from those who'll have anecdotes to tell in the future, Redditor FictionVent asked:
"What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?"

People recall the natural disaster events they've witnessed.

Tremors

"1964 Good Friday Earthquake 9.2 Richter. Was a boy in Cordova, Alaska at the time."

– KitchenLab2536

"My father was skipper of the USCG cutter stationed there. He was inport, and when the quake struck shortly before 5:30pm, he and my mom gathered me and my three siblings on the front porch. At first, it felt like the house was crumbling at the foundation, but on the porch we could plainly see our whole world was shaking. I remember watching telephone poles swaying, and the wires snapping and crackling in the street. The quake lasted about five minutes initially. My dad got his ship underway to avoid the tidal wave which was sure to come. We had several aftershocks in the coming weeks, some of which were quite strong, though nowhere near as strong or as long as the quake itself. I was seven at the time."

– KitchenLab2536

Collapsing Freeway

"October 17th, 1989. I watched the 880 Nimitz freeway collapse during the San Francisco earthquake. The Honda in front of me had the upper deck crush her front-end engine compartment. The mother and her daughter were shaken up but completely fine."

"I was driving a convertible Triumph Spitfire, which was scratched up slightly from debris. However, I walked away unscathed. Aside from the fact I pissed my pants, which I didn't notice until much later."

– CatDaddyWhisper

Thar She Blows

"I sat on the roof of our house and watched Mt. St. Helens erupt less than 100 miles away."

– stinkykitty71

"This must have been fascinating and terryfing in equal measure. What a thing to witness."

– runrossyrun

"It was amazing! The ash that covered everything like snow was interesting to kid me, but less so to my parents."

– stinkykitty71

People recall seeing major catastrophes as a result of malfunctions or judgement errors.

Bomber Crash

"The b-52 crash that led to changing what large military aircraft are allowed to do for airshows."

"I didn't see the plane, but immediately saw the fireball. It was just a perfect, bright red turning to black mushroom cloud."

"Fairchild is a nuclear air base and there were a few minutes there where I was sure the world was about to end."

"A few years before a KC-135 doing the same thing crashed near the school while we were in class."

– goffstock

Tragic Takeoff

"I was standing on my front porch watching the launch of the Challenger."

– StarChaser_Tyger

"Was riding in my parents car to a basketball game in the next town over in north texas when we saw a shooting star and thought that was neat."

"It was the Columbia..."

– Misdirected_Colors

Demolition Gone Wrong

"The failed implosion of the Zip feed mill in Sioux Falls, SD in 2005."

"They hyped it up, sold tickets to it, had a big 'BOOM' marketing thing, and broadcast it live on TV."

"The explosives took out the main supports on the first floor, and the rest of the building above it just plopped down 10ft or so and came to a rest. It was a massive failure, and was a funny little blurb on news stations around the world that day. Definitely not major news, just the rest of the world taking 20 seconds to laugh at us."

"The building sat like that (the leaning tower of SuFu) for quite a while until they figured out how to safely demolish it."

"Here's a clip of the failed demolition."

https://youtu.be/I8DEDUqd0RU

– KitchenBandicoots

These well-known historical events were seen by very few who are alive today.

Historical Remnant

"The tumbling of the Wall in Germany… along with people selling bits and pieces of it on tables in lobby in front of commissary and px in the following weeks and months. I had picked up a chunk about the size of an oreo and kept it… has blue spray paint on the flat side. Wonder if anyone is buying them now?"

– SingedPenguin13

Major Upheaval

"I would have to say the LA riots. I lived about two blocks from where it started. I was on my way home from school and saw someone throw a brick through a window. I didn’t even wait. I just started running the whole way home."

– Scarlaymama0721

Day Of Infamy

"9/11, I could SMELL the collapse of the towers."

– go4tli

"A friend of mine was there. One day in the warehouse we worked in together there was an odd electrical burning smell. He stopped in his tracks and went 'this is what 9/11 smelled like.'"

– mantistoboggan287

I didn't physically witness the fall of the World Trade Center but I was living in New York City at the time.

However, I did see the smoke.

I was living up north in Washington Heights at the time and knowing what happened, uncertain of what was to come, and seeing the plumes of smoke from the attack site was the most ominous sight I've ever seen in my life to date.

Have you ever lived through a historic moment or witnessed something sure to be noted in history books? Let us know in the comments below.

man in business suit standing near the stairs
Hunters Race on Unsplash

A job search is not fun, so most people will tolerate a lot to keep a job.

But everyone has their limit.

Sometimes that limit is reached right in the middle of a work day and people are forced to walk off the job with no prior notice.

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groom in gray suit kissing bride in white dress
NIKITA SHIROKOV on Unsplash

Many weddings involve months of planning and thousands of dollars.

But the one guarantee in life is that poo happens and weddings are not immune to sh*t storms.

Natural disasters, unexpected illnesses, accidents or animosity can derail even the best laid wedding plans.

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When I was in seventh grade, I had aspirations to be a poet. I made a Mother's Day card for my mom with a cute (but now, cringe-worthy) poem inside, and a hand-drawn picture of a rose that took me hours to perfect.

A friend saw the card and said they wished they could do the same. Then suddenly, she asked if she could buy the card from me. I said no, since I needed to give it to my own mother, but I said I could make her a copy. From there, my friend got the idea for me to make copies of the card to sell. I went along with it, mostly because I didn't think it would actually work.

Turns out, it did. After making sure people would actually be interested, we went to the library after school and made several color copies of my card for 10 cents each. The next day, we sold each card for $1. Not only did we make enough money so that my friend and I could both afford to get our moms an actual present in addition to the card, but we had enough leftover to put us over the top for the money we needed to buy the matching faux leather jackets we'd been wanting all year.

The next year, many people who bought cards asked me to do it again, so I did. Once again, we made a killing. We didn't try to do it again once we got to high school, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.

When we tell people this story, they think it's a pretty crazy money-making scheme. Maybe it is, but we're not the only ones who ever did anything like this. Redditors know all about crazy money-making schemes, and are eager to share their own stories.

It all started when Redditor primeiro23 asked:

"What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?"

Tumble Into Business

"In college, I take a class on how to start & run a small business. Prof tells us to think of ridiculous business models for our fictitious businesses as we will get more out of the class that way. Stupid ideas ensue. Selling paperclips door to door, refilling car gasoline tanks in people's driveways, service to read & summarize the newspaper to executives etc."

"One classmate decides he is going to sell tumbleweed."

"Guess who quits college and started a successful business? Tumbleweed guy. Takes a van to the desert, collects tumbleweed and sells them to Hollywood movie & TV studios who need them. Keeps the tumbleweed in a warehouse and since they never spoil, his only costs are gasoline, storage & a website. He eventually becomes the number one tumbleweed provider to studios around the world, shipping tumbleweed globally."

"Made a heap of money selling what millions of people drive by and ignore every year."

– Accomplished-Fig745

Synopses

"I did have a job reading and summarizing newspaper articles to the boss. Literally only task I was hired for."

– Draigdwi

"An actual union job in the film industry is reading scripts and summarizing them in short mean book reports."

– Trixiebees

Jump!

"Heard of crazier, but a guy I know, friend of my mother's, went to Texas 30+ years ago. (we are from Norway), and he noticed every single garden had a trampoline. And it was almost always "jump king" - the circular with blue mat ones."

"So he went to the HQ, bought 10 and took back to Norway. Within days they were sold, and he ordered 50 more, same thing. So he became the only importer and has God knows how many millions to his name today."

– alexdaland

"This IS wild. I went to Norway recently and one of the first things I noticed was that almost EVERY yard had a trampoline in it."

– TrulyMadlyCheaply

Working For A Home

"Back when Dogecoin took off I wrote a guide on recovering old lost wallets and it got so popular I was flooded with requests for further help. Some corrupted wallet files, some lost passwords, etc."

"I have a background in computer science and experience in data retrieval and password cracking, so I started helping people in exchange for a percentage cut (industry standard for wallet recovery). All above board with a contract and everything."

"For a while I was getting new clients every week and making hundreds up to thousands of dollars on every successful recovery (with a fairly good rate of success). The biggest one I ever recovered was a 19 letter long password someone had lost. The work dried up when the price of doge dropped but it got me the down-payment on a house."

– internetpillows

Horsing Around

"A cabbie in Dublin once told me a story about one of his fares who had a brilliant hustle."

"The guy was a sculptor. He would watch horse races, then when a horse won, he'd use social media to contact the owner directly with a digital mockup of a life-sized sculpture of the winning horse. Now, the people who own winning racehorses tend to be very rich - we're talking sheikhs, oligarchs, billionaires. Every now and again, one of these owners would bite, and spend €100,000 euros or so on a statue commemorating their animal's win."

"Dude only did a couple a year, and spent the rest of the time living the good life."

– escoterica

Sweet!

"Richest guy in a rich town near us makes enormous amounts of money buying Hershey bars and rewrapping them with customised retirement celebration designs or corporate logos to be given away at events. Literally just rewraps them in pieces of paper and doubles or triples his money."

"Every time I try to start a company or invent a better product or something, I ask myself why I’m not just rewrapping candy bars."

– perchance2cream

"F**k man, I think I found my new niche."

– LibertyPrimeIsASage

Slightly Used

"I went to college in a capitol C college town. A friend of mine bought an old school bus, fixed it up and took out all the seats."

"At the end of every semester she would drive around the neighborhood that was the fancier side of off campus living and collect whatever the rich kids were throwing out before they moved / went home for the summer. Flat screen TVs, couches, computers, tables, it was wild to see what people would chuck out and replace the next semester rather than having to deal with getting a storage unit or moving themselves."

"Sold it all on Craigslist over the summer or the beginning of the next semester and made a killing."

– sam_neil

Credit Where Credit Is Undue

"When I worked in a really busy, upscale restaurant my coworker would put all of his cash-paying customer’s bills on his credit card and keep the cash which he used to promptly pay off his credit card."

"He did this all day, every day for quite a while and the points started to add up and he was getting free airfare, etc."

"Worked great for a while until management notice a rise in credit card processing fees with an emphasis on one employee and they shut him down real quick."

– blinkysmurf

We Found Gold!

"My buddy worked his way through college by panning for gold. This was in 2009 in California. Most days he made nothing, occasionally he would come home with a couple hundred bucks worth and I think once he found a night worth over $1k."

– discostud1515

"My cousin had a metal detector when he was in HS. He would go every weekend down to the lake and take it with him on vacation. He found all kinds of things. He did find gold jewelry and would sell it online. He made so much money he bought his own car."

– Content_Pool_1391

Sleeping For The Job

"I knew a woman whose job was literally to sleep."

"A local office building owner wanted somebody on-site 24/7 to be the point of contact with first responders if they ever needed to be called. So they hired her to come in to the building in the evening when the maintenance crew was finishing their work. And she would settle up to sleep for the night in a bedroom they'd set aside for her. In the morning she'd hand the building back over to the office employees and go on about her day."

"No first responders were ever called. It's about the least stressful legitimate job I could ever imagine."

– CaptainTime5556

The Secret

"Back in the 90s, I knew a guy who put an ad in the classified section of the newspaper which read something along the lines of, “For $10, I’ll tell you my secret to making easy money. Send $10 cash to (address) to find out how.” People would send him $10 & he would then instruct them to put a classified ad in the newspaper telling people to send $10 & how to make money."

– freudianfalls

Accident Payment

"I was pushed down the stairs by a teen girl who told me to "pay attention and get out of her way" i ripped my dress during the fall and was getting back up when some guy rushed up to me, apologized for his daughter and handed me $500 as compensation."

– thebrilliantcounc

"LOL - years back, I was in a parking lot during a snowstorm. A guy was trying to pull around me, slid on the snow/ice and hit into my passenger side door. It really and truly was an accident. He was all apologies. We exchanged info - he said to get a quote and he would pay for the damage."

"Well, the car I was driving at the time was a crappy old Ford worth maybe $500. But, I went to a body shop, got a quote on the repair and it was $900. I faxed it to him (this was back in the 90's, LOL) thinking he'd tell me to go through the insurance company and just have the car totaled out."

"To my surprise, I had a bank check for $900 from him in my mailbox three days later. Now, I already owned another car, so I pocketed the $900, sold the smashed car for parts for $300 and ended up with $1200 on a car that was worth only $500 before the accident. I was very glad that he ran into me!"

– Deleted User

Only Feet

"I have a friend who sells pictures of her feet. In heels. Barefoot squishing cake. In mud. She charges extra for special requests. Has strict ‘no go’ rules. Never shows anything above the calf so she can’t be identified (no tats). All proceeds go to her kid’s college fund. Has made enough to fund a PhD."

– NotACrazyCatLadyx2

The things people do for money! But, I guess it works for her!