I Hope That I Would Be A Better Person Than That – Cruise Ship Revelations

By now everyone has heard about the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia sinking.

This morning I was writing when I heard Dr. Phil talking on the TV in the other room.  What grabbed my attention was something that the woman was saying about the cruise ship captain, so I went in to see what it was all about.

I had not planned on spending my next 40-45 minutes in tears but I did.  What a powerful and amazing story!!

Dr. Phil was interviewing a couple who had survived.  Here is the scenario; they had taken this cruise with two of their three daughters.  The daughter not with them was only absent because she had just gotten married and was on her honeymoon (I think that’s what they said).

This couple was describing the mass pandemonium that ensued upon this ship when it crashed.  As I came in on the show 15-20 minutes later, I missed what was first being said but where I picked up instantly made me cry and get angry at the same time.

The couple was telling about how people were pushing and shoving, no one was taking charge of the situation, no leadership by the crew (as we know now, the captain was gone already).  There were no lifeboats for these people to get on and they were told that, if they could get to the other side of the boat (which meant if you can climb up there), you can probably find a lifeboat there.

There was (I think) an Argentinean couple with a baby that they had been talking to.  This couple and their girls, with the Argentinean couple behind them were trying to make their way through the inner part of the ship when they all became trapped in some section of it.  The couple lifted their baby up to the woman and asked her to take their baby with them.

The woman did.  Then, after a few minutes, when she realized that they were all not going to make it out, she handed the baby back to the couple saying to them “you need to spend this time with your baby”.  ”In other words”, she said to Dr. Phil, “we’re all going to die here and your baby needs to die with you, not me.”

Can you imagine how you would feel?  I shiver at the thought.  Then this family proceeded to say their goodbyes to each other and began praying.  They prayed for survival, they prayed to be taken to heaven together, they prayed for the daughter who would be left behind, they prayed!

The Argentinean family drown but God heard this family’s prayers ’cause the boat shifted enough for them to climb up through a grating and stand on a wall that now was a floor of sorts with about 100 other people they said.  But once again they were trapped.

At this point, there suddenly came a ladder of some sort that was lowered down to them from the outside of the ship.  Can you believe that these 100 people started pushing and shoving people out of the way to get to that ladder?

Dr. Phil asked what the men were doing and the woman said they were shoving people and climbing up the ladder!!!!  Unbelievable to me!  There were children, not to mention the women, but they were climbing up ahead of the little children!!!  The woman said at some point, quickly realizing what was happening, their daughters said “this ain’t happening!” and shoved their way up to the bottom of the ladder.  Once there, these wonderful, beautiful young ladies started grabbing the kids and hoisting them up to the ladder while shoving adults back out of the way.

After most of the children had been evacuated, these girls turned to their parents and told them to get up there.  The couple said, “you go and we will be right behind you!”  The girls reluctantly began to climb up the ladder and the parents, already making their way over, climbed up behind them!!!!

Unbelievable, inspiring, and heartbreaking!!  I can’t imagine the guilt this woman must be feeling now about that couple’s baby.  I know she started crying as she told about how she handed it back to its parents.  She said that right before she did it, she was trying to figure out how she was going to climb with this baby in her arms but then it didn’t matter because they saw no way of any of them getting out.

I would be devastated.  If I am ever, ever, ever in a crisis like that, I pray to God that I would be like this courageous family and especially those two girls!!  Dr. Phil asked the couple at the end of the show how proud they were of them and the faces of that couple told it all before they even said, “Extremely proud!”

I just wanted to share that with you.  It is refreshing to see that there are still wonderful people out there who put their faith in God and act in the way that all mankind should!!

Blessings,
Terri

 

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