we all need a moan sometimes..........my work has been especially stressfull recently ( I am a ward manager at the northern),my ward is short staffed, certain patients have been grossly abusive, I am skint, my elderly cats are incontinent,I never have time to do all the nice things i WOULD like to do,

when things get really bad I rememeber being a 2nd year psychiatric nurse on an elderly ward...most patients were totally senile . i was stressed and tired and was trying to feed most of the elderly men cups of tea.

i felt sorry for myself and was forgetting my patients needs, until fraught and weary I watched an elderly lady sitting with her visitor husband on an adjacent ward.

she was totally senile and generally immobile, and he seemed to visit her daily. her ward seemed deserted of staff, and the radio was playing to 20 seemingly unhearing ladies sat in a rectangle.
as I watched unnoticed, this lady's husband pulled his wife to her feet very carefully and haltingly, to the radio he started to waltz with her.
she staggered at first, then as some of the memory hit home, she started to dance, and they gently floated around the ward.

it was a magical, human and uplifting moment, which I will always rememeber....

so when I get down and fed up in sheffield's often hard days
that incident 20 years ago helps....

have a nice day everyone

just read your post brought tears to my eyes and there i was feeling sorry for myself because i had my car stolen we dont know how lucky we are . Have a good day

:cry: thanks crowfan. Me too...

what a beautiful memory,
Brought me to tears
Hazel

You've got me remembering a time when I had to break the news of a death to a family in A/E.
This little old man had been brought in & all resuscitation attempts were futile.
I went into the 'relatives room' & was met by 4 giant Yorkshiremen (his sons) & his tiny old wife.

As you'd imagine they were anxious & desperate for any thread of news. All the blokes were standing.
I thought I was about to be murdered.
So I spilled the news as is my way, honestly truthfully & succinctly.
One of the giants yelled NNNOOOOOO!!! & started hammering the wall with his fist, 2 of the others sat crying & the last was speechless.
My blood ran cold & I quickly sat on the next seat to the elderly lady.
She was the most composed of them, she turned to me & looked me straight in the eyes, she asked
"what am I going to do now? It is our Golden Wedding Anniversary this weekend"

I couldn't help but joining in the sob-a-thon.
It still makes me fill up when I think about it.


Other memories are coming back of similar events. If I start to think about recounting them all I'm gonna be helpless.

TTFN*DK

don,
these stories are the benefits of working in the nhs

reflection is a gift to be able to see that we DO occassionally make a difference

cheers

This thread definately bears testimony to the old adage about 'counting your blessings'. Remembering that there are normally people worse off than yourself can be a great leveller.

K x

loved that story Crowefan - thanks for sharing it with us :)

thankyou so much both of you for those wonderful memories, i am sat here tears streaming. i dont know how i would be able to break that sort of news. when the little boy got knocked over outside our shop i couldnt go over the road till the flowers had gone weeks later because i burst into tears everytime i looked at the crossing.

Luv & Hugs
Litha

What a great story! People may come and go, but stories like that one live forever.

In a way, we never die.

any other upliftiong stgories anyone??/

I too had to break the news of a death to a family.

It was 7.00pm on the 15th November 1991; I know this as it was just before my 21st birthday.

The man was 49 years old and had just been admitted to the A&E at the Northern General having just suffered a heart attack.

I spent about half and hour in this mans company, he made light of his situation and we laughed and joked about things he’d been doing that week and that he should now start to take things easier in life.

During that half hour I spent some time with his kids, who were waiting in the room next to the ward their Father was in. We were talking between ourselves; they were obviously concerned about their Father’s condition but never lost hope that everything would be OK. If only their Mother wasn’t in London doing Christmas shopping, she would know what to do.

As we talked a Nurse entered the room to tell these three kids, that their Father had suffered another heart attack and that they had done all they could to save him but he had just given up the fight.

We all went into the room where I had just spent 30 minutes talking to this wonderful man. He breathed out, then nothing.

I couldn’t speak; we just sobbed and hugged each other.

The hardest part of all, having to tell his wife, that whilst she had been Christmas shopping her husband of 23 years had passed away.

That was nearly 14 years ago and the memory of that night will be with me forever, it made me stronger and more able to deal with the crappy things life throws in my way.

How do I know this, I know this because that wonderful man was my Father, those three kids were my sister, brother and myself.

“Here For A Good Time, Not A Long Time So Live Every Moment As Though Its Your Last”

Originally posted by crowefan
any other upliftiong stgories anyone??/ before i became ill i used to take underprivelidged kids,kids in homes,special needs etc rock climbing as a volanteer.the one that sticks in my memory was a young but very large mongoloid lad named jason,we had him all rigged up for a climb,the other kids had done it and were chearing him on, he froze at the foot of the climb,no matter what any of the instructors said or did,he just would not get onto the rock so rather than let him think he had let any one down i told him he was my chief mate,in charge of helping me with the rope work to bring the other kids up the rock face.

we tied him off at the top with me,and when i drew in the rope he would gather it up behind me,then join in making a fuss of the kids who climbed to the top,slapping them on their back and shouting encouragement to each of them.


while we were sat together i asked him why he didnt fancy climbing? the answer took me back a bit,he said that when he looked upwards he felt dizzy and he was frightened, within half an hour we descended in tandem down the rock face together,much to the applause of the other kids who hadent abseiled at all,

the look on his face was fantastic,he was so proud that he had been the only one to come down the rope instead of going up it which gave him great cred amongst the other kids, we got back to sheffield on time,he ran to his mum,picked her up,swung her round and said to her" mum mum me and alan were the only ones who came down the rope" then he began to shout to his mates as they were leaving" it was great, im doing something great"

his mum came over and asked why he was so elated so i told her,he wouldnt go up the rock,but there was no stopping him coming down it,and he was the only one to do it, the look on her face as she said thank you to me for taking the time to try to understand her son and make things work for him was well worth the effort.

sadly jason died several months later,but i like to think he was happy that he had achieved something on his own

lovely story!!!

come on more please!!!! pet rescue has finished and I need a good cry

Originally posted by crowefan
lovely story!!!

come on more please!!!! pet rescue has finished and I need a good cry

This thread has really moved me; pass the tissues! :cry:

K x

i have to be careful not to read this thread if someones in the shop. i was reading it earlier thinking i was safe when 3 people came in at the same time.. i was trying to talk to them with out having to look at them i musta looked dead shifty:suspect:

Just had to say thank you Crowefan for starting this thread with your wonderful tale of human spirit. Like the others - I need a tissue for this and the other contributions.
Blub...

Top thread which definitely beats arguing about bus fares etc!

hiya mates,you know sometimes lifes stories can be quiet touching,as i said in my earlier post im ill now so i dont go volounteering any more,what i do is take my mates and their kids and grand kids out in the summer and my eldest lad does the rope work on the rocks.

you dont have to be an expert to give some thing,sign up as a helper at your local school or as i did, work for the c.a.b. you receive training,then become an advisor,a couple of hours a week is all you have to put in.

if you like the out doors as i do, phone around,see which organizations are looking for helpers,you wont earn anything,but you will get great job satisfaction, but please,dont do it just to impress others,ive seen it ,and these types dont last too long...give it a whirl, whats it going to cost you?

Another day when I was in A/E a family of 3 were brought in from a car fire/ RTA. I believe the (3 door) car had been shunted at speed on the motorway, the petrol tank ruptured & the car spun.
The petrol, having ignited surrounded the car in a wall of flame & the force of the ignition blew the back window in.
There was a little boy sat on the back seat who took the initial force of the fireball.
His parents were quickly able to flee the car but his Dad had to reach back in through the flames to pull his kid out.
When they arrived in A/E the whole department stank of cooked meat, singed hair & clothing, petrol & smoke.
To shorten the story they all lived.
The dad's arms were like the image of the Vietnamese napalm child so often shown, with skin hanging in partially cooked shreds de-gloved from the elbow. Mum wasn't too bad I seem to recall, but the boy was badly burned and all from behind. Luckily his face was pretty much untouched.
He was taken to the nearest specialist burns unit after assessment & stabilising him.

It was one of those shifts that seemed to fly by regardless of having no breaks at all.
I walked home that day & stopped for a while by the brook in the village.
Just my thoughts here, (I don't want to share).
When I finally got home I opened my front door to be met by my boy, who was then about 5 & hadn't yet got a deal of understandable speech due to his ASD.
He ran to me & leapt into my arms & announced quite clearly that he'd missed me & he loved me.
I don't know where he'd got that from - it was a first.
But he seemed to know. Somehow. It was all I needed as I'd managed to keep the tears back untill then.


Sometime much later I was priviledged to be at work when the mum & the boy in the fire came to say thankyou.
She was fine physically, & seemed to be coping.
The boy had not grown his hair back but several grafts had rebuilt some of his ears.

He had with him his best friend.
His best friend had just received an award for sticking with this little guy when all the other kids had shunned him & even taunted him over his altered appearance.



there I go again

Stop it with the stories...... gosh I wish I were hard!!!! cry at anything and everything, even the adverts on teli make you cry, if its not some natural disaster its a pet charity. Ill be sooooo skint soon as I already give to numerous charities and spend all my bloomin time selling raffle tickets for anyone and everyone. Whats the world going to be like in ten years time!!!! yes you guessed a jibbering wreck with no money. lol. :cry:

crying is good....like I say pet rescue , a sad looking dog, and I am in buckets....

come on sheffield more heart warming, stories please.....

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Top stories people.

Pass the tissues.

Nomme

My eyes are welling too.

The first story reminded me of that Comic Relief drama about abuse of the elderly, starring Richard Briers. Anyone else see that? Had me in tears.

i feel in need for some new sad stories
come on sheffielders....................

The phone came out of the blue at 21.30 on Saturday night. I was staying in Hull. Steven, my lad, was in hospital. He was a qualified diving instructor, and had become unwell after a routine dive that morning in a quarry in Tamworth. He'd driven himself to his local hospital, in Worcester, despite gradually losing all sensation in his hands, and on arrival his legs gave way. He had been flown by police helicopter to a decompression unit on The Wirral.

I returned home to Sheffield immediately, where I waited for the hospital to ring me. The call came at 03.40. The doctor explained that Steven had not responded to treatment, and was being transferred to another hospital for scans. I asked what was wrong. The doctor said he was paralysed from the waist down, and both his arms were also paralysed.

I drove through the night, (taking a long detour as Snake Pass was closed, due to heavy snow). I got to the hospital at 07.30 -only to find Steven was now being transferred to a neurological hospital in Liverpool for more tests & scans. Although he was recovering some movement in his hands, his legs were dead. At 17.30, the consultant confimed he had the bends, and Steven was immediately taken back to the decompression unit. He stayed in the unit until midnight. No change in his condition.

The doctors explained to us all, and Steven, that this is how he now was. They would continue with daily decomprsssion and intensive phsysiotherapy, but said that as he had made no recovery in his legs, we must not build up our hopes that he would ever walk again. He was a month off his 23rd. birthday.

Decompression continued in the morning, and as he was taken in a wheelchair for his first physio session, he cheerily said to the nurse "You've got until Friday to get me out of this wheelchair, and then I'm racing you round the block - and watch me win". Such optimism. Such hope. He had only recovered the use of his arms and hands. The medics prepared us for the worst - we must expect that our lad would never walk again. There had been no change in his legs for over 48 hours, and for any hope of recovery the norm was under 24 hours. We had to be brave for Steven though, as he never stopped smiling, never stopped joking and laughing, and kept talking to his legs, telling them to stop being stupid and to get a move on - he had a race to win on Friday.

The days passed without any change in his condition. The treatment continued relentlessly. All afternoon and evening, Steven practised his physio routines. Then, on the Wednesday night, he noticed he could wiggle the toes on one foot. Thursday came. He could stand holding a zimmer, but could not move, but he wiggled his toes and laughed aloud that he was on his way to winning the race.....tomorrow.

He came out of decompression on Friday morning, when he was again propped up on a zimmer, and he announced it was time for his race. The nursing staff took away the zimmer. He stood unaided, but motionless, constantly grinning. The nurses stood in front and behind him. "Come on then" said the nurse in front of him, "walk towards me - we'll catch you if you fall". He carried on grinning. "My legs won't listen to me" he said. "Tell the legs to walk" said the nurse. More grinning. "They won't move - but I'm supposed to be in race today". "How about walking before you run" said the nurse, adding, with urgency in his voice "Now bloody well walk towards me, and do it now!". "Ok" said Steven, and made a faltering step. Then another. And another. And continued doing it, laughing and grinning as he wobbled all over the place.

Where did his strength of conviction come from that he would be walking (if not running) by Friday? When all the odds were stacked against him - when the doctors had told us that unless he showed some recovery within 24-48 hours, there was almost no hope he would ever walk again? Steven had never faltered in his belief that he would be out of the wheelchair by Friday. He had constantly smiled, grinned, joked, laughed and bantered throughout. Never despaired, never allowed a thought in his head that all would not be alright by Friday.

After a couple of dozen steps, he fell, but was caught. Lifted back into the wheelchair, they wheeled him away to remove the cathater. When he was wheeled back, he grinned that grin of his at me, as tears poured down my face. "Dad - I told the nurse she'd only got until today to get me out of this wheelchair, but would you go and tell her the race around the block is postponed until next Friday, as I need to train a bit more".

Incredibly, Steven was discharged the following Friday - and he walked out of the hospital.

I have found this whole thread very upsetting; thanks to all, I needed a good cry!

K x

Depoix
Your a Wonderful Bloke
I miyself have a son who has special needs and i can totally understand firstly his apprehension at going UP the cliff and secondly the ultimate joy of the feeling at being the only one to go DOWN it.
I have the utmost admiration for you.
Thanks

What a wonderful way to say Goodnight, Thank you for that.

i see so many uplifting stories like these, and it does lift the spirit, especially when there is so much meanness, and bad feeling in the world.

I do think that people ARE generally good, and being human is a really wonderfull thing.badness is the minority....we sometimes have lost the skill and thought to be better people.................

I have another one!

this really moved me, it happened a few years ago when I was a junior charge nurse. an elderly lady in her 80's was admitted after a fall, she had broken her neck, and was given a poor prognosis, ( most of these patients last only a few hours after injury!)
her husband arrived on the ward alone, he was her only relative, and was truely a senior gentleman, early 80's, suit, tie,hankerchef in top pocket, trilby hat,

I worked with this gentleman and was there when he was informed that his wife's prognosis was poor and subsequently with him as he waited for the end to come. His wife never really regained conciousness, and he waited with her quietly and with dignaty. They had been married 60 years and had no family to speak of.

she died only an hour after, and although clearly devistated, he remained quiet and in control. When he decieded to leave I asked him who could I call to pick him up. He said no one, as his wife was the only family and friend he had. He said matter o factly that he would get the two busses home from the northern general to norton.

I offered to get him a taxi, ( the staff had already suggested a quite whip round to pay for it!) but he politely refused, saying he would be ok.

I couldnt bear this dignified elderly man going home alone, but with pride and strength he stated firmly that he was going. I felt awful, the only thing I felt I could do was at least walk him to the bus stop on herries road, and that is what I did. in full uniform we ambled through the hospital and over the road to the bus stop, arm in arm. I waited with him until his bus came, and still quiet, shocked and in control, he shook my hand and thanked me for what I had done.

thank god there are people like him in the world, quiet, gentle people with strength ............

I have been fighting back the tears reading through this post :( You people are just lovely. I need a hug now :cry:

Some of these stories are so touching, I have tears streaming down my face. If noone minds I have something to share too.

No doubt some of you have heard that I lost my best friend Keran in 2003 well heres what happened.

On the 21st September, the day after my 21st birthday she was complaining that she was having bad problems with her asthma, she suffered terribly from it, she had been staying at my house in Kiveton and new that the best thing for her was to go to the hospital in Barnsley, I rang round her boyfriend and grandparents but they couldnt get to pick her up, so I took her on the bus to sheffield, where she went to get the train to Barnsley, She insisted that she go on her own and wouldnt take no for an answer.

A few hours later her grandma called to say she was in the hospital and told me which ward and then her boyfriend called to say hed meet me in sheffield and we would go and see her. She was in the Hospital for a week, it had been a pretty bad attack.

She was discharged on Friday 26th September, and we arranged for me to go round and stay at hers and we were gonna have a girlie weekend, we had a good night then started watching the Musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when she started having another attack, it was much worse this time, she was having to sit in the window and practically hang out of it to get air, I ran down stairs to get her grandma, we got back up stairs and Keran was ambling out of the window towards the middle of the room, then her legs gave way, still gasping for breath, she couldnt speak because she wasnt getting any air, we called the ambulance 3 times, by the time they arrived, we new in our hearts that she was gone, but didnt want to believe it, we raced to the hospital, and her boyfriend met us there, they put us in the relatives room then after what seemed like forever the doctor came in, and did just like what you saw on tv said all the usual stuff how they tried but there was nothing they could do and that Keran had passed away.

We were all devastated, her grandad especially he just kept saying not again over and over, because years ago he had lost a daughter a bit younger than keran in a hit and run. I had to go outside and get some air.

The worst part for me was when we went to the Morgue, i think thats what its called, they had laid Keran out and she just looked like she was sleeping, Id never actually seen anyone who was dead before and i wasnt sure how I was supposed to feel, I stood holding her had asking her over and over to wake up and saying its not funny now you had your joke come on get up, and i just dropped to the floor in tears.

for the next week I didnt sleep, i couldnt stop crying everything and everyone reminded me of Keran.

A few months after her death, I wanted to do something fitting for her memory and the right thing to me seemed to be to get a tattoo, I got it on my leg, its a rainbow with clouds with her name underneath with the years 1982-2003.

Im sorry I seemed to ramble a bit

Susie
xx

theres more stories in all of us.............

come on sheffielders

This story isn't quite of the magnitude of most of the ones we've already heard but it's an event that continues to remind me of the good in people 8 years after it happened :)

When I was 12, my friends and I decided to take a short cut through the bush (well, in Australia we call it the bush, it's like dense woods or forest) to get home from the bus stop. Although living in the area my whole life, I'd never taken this short cut but was assured by the others that there was a path so it would be difficult to get lost. We set off and everything was fine. Nice day, birds chirping, all that.

The further into the bush we got the path became less and less defined, and you literally had to watch your every step so as not to trip over a fallen branch or rock or something. Well, apparently I wasn't watching carefully enough because next thing I knew I'd tripped and fallen down. Being in shorts at the time, I grazed pretty much my entire left shin, from knee to ankle and there was blood everywhere. Because the path was so narrow we were walking in single file and the only person that knew I'd fallen was Chris, who was directly in front of me. He asked me if I was OK, I assured him that I was, and he kept walking to keep up with the others.

However, at that stage I had stood up but not started walking. It wasn't until I tried to get moving again that I realised my leg was in worse shape than I thought and every step was absolute agony. I sat back down again, assuming the others would come back, but they were too far ahead.

Considering it was about 4pm and absolutely terrified of being lost in the bush alone after dark, I forced myself to start walking but quickly realised I had no idea where I was. There was no path to speak of and I didn't recognise the area at all. I kept walking and eventually came up behind a row of houses that backed onto the bush. By now I was in an absolute panic, tears streaming down my face and my leg a right mess.

In the back yard of one of the houses, there was a guy out doing some DIY who saw me and shouted out 'You alright, love?'. Through my mind flashed all those warnings about not talking to strangers, etc but I was in such a state that I thought any adult around is better than none. I walked towards the house, tried explaining through tears what had happened, but all he needed to see was my leg before ushering me inside.

Once we were inside, his wife came into the back room and he told her what had happened. For the next hour or so she looked after me, cleaning up the wound, giving me plenty of water (it was summertime, after all) and generally making all the right soothing noises that Mums are so good at!!

While she was doing all that, her 6-year-old daughter came in and made it her job to cheer me up. She showed me all her toys and then disappeared into the kitchen for a minute. When she came back she was holding a plate of 3 little cupcakes - they'd had a cake stall at her school that day and her mum had given her money especially for it but she wanted me to have them so I would be happy. I politely declined and told her to keep them for a treat after tea.

Anyway when I was all set to go the man drove me home (which turned out to be just around the corner and down the street a bit) and saw me inside. Mum and Dad were still at work buy my very worried sister was there waiting for me and so then there were more tears :)

I am still so grateful for this family's kindness, and hate to think what might have happened had they not been there. My one regret is that in all the madness I never asked their names, because they really do deserve recognition!!

My my, I do tell a long winded story!!

just seen the film amilee again................

it was a beautifull story but the scene right at the end when amilee dreamed of her boyfriend hugging her and found out it was her cat.............broke my heart..............


can any other sheffielder give me a sad sheffield story???

Originally posted by redrobbo

Incredibly, Steven was discharged the following Friday - and he walked out of the hospital.

yep, and then I signed up to cycle the in Himalayas for charity where I broke my wrist. :D
...and now I'm on the Sheffield forum!

Good thread, apologies for being late :)

Originally posted by SupraSteve
yep, and then I signed up to cycle the in Himalayas for charity where I broke my wrist. :D
...and now I'm on the Sheffield forum!

Good thread, apologies for being late :)

Welcome to the Sheffield forum Suprasteve! Pleased to see you are posting. Keep it up!

Red xXx

What a lovely thread! Beautiful stories about human strength and compassion. Please keep them coming:)

Why on earth do I keep reading this thread. It gets me every time.

<----Goes to find tissues and cool-pack to put on eyes.

Some years ago I worked on the end of a phoneline and spoke regually to a lady through the night and listened to her worries about her illness. I never knew and probably neither did she at that time, what was wrong.

She was very grateful and sent me a book of poems that she had written which I put in a drawer out of sight and the lady died.

About 12 yrs later I found I had an illness that wan't going to get better and feeling distraught, and frightened I knew I would have to get in touch with some society that would give me info and help.

Clearing the paper work I didn't need anymore I emptied this drawer and there was the book of poems and when I opened the front page there was the name and tel no of the people I needed to help me.

Did she reach out over the yrs to return the favour.

hazel

going down the posts, i have read about the fighting at the adelphi and shook my head at the madness out 'there' and now ive just read this thread about all the goodness thats in people, we all have to remember that its still in us all to be wonderful, none of these deeds cost anything and they werent bought from meadowhall either.
Can this post be 'stuck' on the front row so we can all be reminded? I used to work at Middlewood and saw many acts of selfless love, one elderly gent used to come every lunchtime to feed his wife as she had her hands bandaged up to stop her biting her fingers.

Originally posted by hazel
Some years ago I worked on the end of a phoneline and spoke regually to a lady through the night and listened to her worries about her illness. I never knew and probably neither did she at that time, what was wrong.

She was very grateful and sent me a book of poems that she had written which I put in a drawer out of sight and the lady died.

About 12 yrs later I found I had an illness that wan't going to get better and feeling distraught, and frightened I knew I would have to get in touch with some society that would give me info and help.

Clearing the paper work I didn't need anymore I emptied this drawer and there was the book of poems and when I opened the front page there was the name and tel no of the people I needed to help me.

Did she reach out over the yrs to return the favour.

hazel

What a remarkable story Hazel.

I hope you obtained the support you needed.

And thank you suzyoo for reminding me that the world is not all madness and fighting down at the Adelphi (I also read that thread), but sometimes acts of kindness and generosity of spirit.

Red

I'm not sure how, but this thread just came up in my memory and we just spent the last twenty minutes having a small cry-ette. :(

I dont do crying.

its for softies....says she with tears flowing down ger cheeks and a lump the size of a football in her throat
what are you doing to me

I hadnt seen or been in touch with my eldest brother for 18yrs
family thing!!!!

we did meet and after the initial awkwardness all the bad feeling flowed away

it was great to have my big brother back in my life

the good memories flowed,the laughter at childhood pranks

he always seemed to be just passing our house and pop in for a cuppa and a laugh
his wife said " he loves coming here,he loves your cheeky ways, can we come Sunday for one of your dinners"
well did i show off,no holds barred
after dinner he asked me to come into the kitchen for a minute

there he told me he had cancer and had only a few weeks left

this is the first time ive really cried

he died 4wks after that Sunday 6yrs ago

18years lost because of some silly thing we couldnt even remember what.
my only consolation was i was there when needed

yea there is a moral in this story xxxxxx

Thanks for sharing :)

another sad sheffield story


well it was a sheffield/welsh story......we moved from sheffield to a small cottage in wales, with two terriers and two very old cats, Betty and Joan.
Joan relished the change of scene, and at 18 became a kitten again, chasing birds in the cottage garden and exploring the flower bedsand neighbourhood garden. Betty, the more nervous 18 year old found the move more traumatic and very quickly became ill. Our Welsh terrier had always hated the cats, and chose to torment them on occassions by the odd sly kick, bottom lick and barge!! They chose to live rather seperate lives in different parts of the house and he would seek them out when he could to wind them up.

Betty, had cardiac failure and after several visits to the vet, we slightly sedated her and brought her home to die.

I always will rememeber that morning , the warm sun streaming through the window,onto my bed joan by her side, the old cat was slipping away.Finlay the terrier walked in and sniffed betty, she raised her head and quite amazingly he climbed up next to her and lay around her, staying like that until she died.

If I hadnt seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it

A beautiful and true story - see San Francisco Chronicle archives:


A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.

"It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it," James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. "It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun."

Sunday's daring rescue was the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an entangled humpback, said Shelbi Stoudt, stranding manager for the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County.

The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.

It was spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the Farallones, about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.

Mick Menigoz of Novato, who organizes whale watching and shark diving expeditions on his boat the New Superfish, got a call for help Sunday morning, alerted the Marine Mammal Center and gathered a team of divers.

By 2:30 p.m., the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.

It was a very risky maneuver, Stoudt said, because the mere flip of a humpback's massive tail can kill a man.

"I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with "Great White Adventures," a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. "I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it."

Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale's mouth.

The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.

At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow- hole out of the water.

Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.

"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me, watching me," Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."

When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.

"It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you,'' Moskito said. "I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience."

Humpback whales are known for their complex vocalizations that sound like singing and for their acrobatic breaching, an apparently playful activity in which they lift almost their entire bodies out of the water and splash down.

Before 1900, an estimated 15,000 humpbacks lived in the North Pacific, but the population was severely reduced by commercial whaling. In the 20th century, their numbers dwindled to fewer than 1,000. An international ban on commercial whaling was instituted in 1964, but humpbacks are still endangered. Between 5,000 and 7,500 humpbacks are left in the world's oceans, and many of those survivors migrate through the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

Whale experts say it's nice to think that the whale was thanking its rescuers, but nobody really knows what was on its mind.

"You hate to anthropomorphize too much, but the whale was doing little dives and the guys were rubbing shoulders with it," Menigoz said. "I don't know for sure what it was thinking, but it's something that I will always remember. It was just too cool."

Humpback whales hold a special place in the hearts of Bay Area residents ever since one that came to be known as Humphrey journeyed up the Sacramento River in 1985. The wayward creature swam into a slough in Rio Vista, attracting 10,000 people a day as whale experts tried desperately to turn it around. Humphrey went back to sea after 25 days of near-pandemonium and worldwide media attention.

In the fall of 1990, Humphrey turned up again inside the bay in shallow water near the Bayshore Freeway, finally beaching on mud flats near Double Rock, just off the Candlestick parking lot. He remained stuck for 25 hours, until volunteers, helped by a 41-foot Coast Guard boat, pulled him free and sent him back to the ocean. He has not been seen since.

Humpbacks like Humphrey do seem to relate to people more than other whales, according to Stoudt.

"You do hear reports of friendly humpbacks, whales approaching boaters, especially in Baja California," Stoudt said, "but, for the most part, they don't like to be interacted with."

E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com

Great stories, touching and moving. Thanks for sharing them - makes u realise what really is important in life !!

thanks prittstik a lovely story...........................I love sad uplifting stories, makes a change from all the negativity in the world ( and threads)

more please

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This is one I heard from a&e when I was a student there! A lovely scottish sister said that one day an elderly lady was brought in collapsed from town, sadly she subsequently died, and her dapper husband who was in his 80s, was brought in by a neighbour from home.
He was reserved and dignified, and asked the scottish sister if he could see his wife. She and a student nurse ( not me) led him into a cubicle where he sat silently for a long while, then he asked the sister if she would do a favour for him. Moved she said yes, andhe asked her if she and the student could wrap his wife's arms around him a last time! she , choking back tears agreed and with difficulty she and the student gentley sat the lady up and each wrapped one of her arms around him as he cuddled her one last time...

sad or what? but a lovely story never-the-less
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