"A Traumatic and Scary Event" My Encounter with Near Death.

When I was a 5th grader at St. Mary's grade school and just started my long awaited Summer vacation, I was walking down a residential street near our home, mid-afternoon.  I was nearing a well kept and nice home that had a tall fence that was solid board and I knew that a severely retarded young man lived there with his parents, as my Mother had told us about the sad situation. She told us that the strong fence was there to both protect the boy and to protect people on the outside because the boy was emotionally unstable, incredibly strong and had a history of becoming violent.  I noticed from across the street, a very old lady from the neighborhood, Miss Peach, being 80+ years old and very fragile but agile, was walking by the fence.  I heard a loud noise and saw part of the fence break away near the top and the boy managed to reach over and had grabbed her neck and it was a violent, ugly and very scary scene.  I did not know what to do as she screamed and fought for her life.  I decided to run over to try and help her and as I worked to pull and tear her away from his raging arms, he let her go but managed to bite my arm and hand.  Her screams and the noise of the struggle must have alerted his parents who came out to help.  A passing car stopped and then I noticed Firemen from the nearby Firehouse came running and then 2 Police cars came.  They attended Miss Peach who was in bad shape and bleeding, but reasonably ok.  A very nice Policeman asked me what occurred and as I sat in his Cruiser, I was shaken and afraid too.  He was thankful and told me that I saved her life.  He handed me a five dollar bill and told me to buy myself something nice and thanked me.  I was so shaken and traumatized that I told no one and actually sat nearby and cried my eyes out for about 30 minutes and said some prayers in my head, as I was still shaking. Later in the week at school, I put the five dollar bill in the weekly Mission offering from our 5th grade class and again told no one about my sad encounter.  I still think about Miss Peach and how afraid I was and thankful that I, a shy young boy, somehow found the courage and energy to help.  To be continued.....   Capt. Rick Rotundo