A Good Samaritan from Amarillo, Texas
became an unsung superhero after he rescued a woman and her baby in the midst of a snow & ice storm. A member of the Amarillo
Senior Center Association (ASCA) took refuge in the Salvation Army Harrington Hope Center Intake at Harrington Street
and 5th Avenue in Amarillo, of the Texas Panhandle.
An ASCA member was turned out into the
frigid night air on February 1, 2010 for no given reason. Salvation Army refused to give the card-carrying member of Amarillo
Senior Citizen Association (ASCA) a simple cot.
According to our unsung hero; Mr. Terrance
White was in charge of the Salvation Army's Intake Post, which is Salvation Army's admissions processing station on behalf
of the Red Cross. White insisted that the injured senior citizen should sleep on a top bunk.
The city of Amarillo was in the middle
of a winter snow and ice storm at that time. A Christian member of the Amarillo Senior Citizens Association, who decided to
remain anonymous during his interview for this publication, had slipped and fallen earlier in the day at the Amarillo City
Bus Transfer Station earlier on that freezing-cold February day (because the city of Amarillo had neglected to put salt on
the sidewalks).
Since Amarillo doesn't have a permanent
Texas Panhandle American Red Cross intake center, distressed people use the Texas Panhandle Salvation Army Harrington Hope
Center in order to help provide emergency services during inclement weather and natural disasters. Our Good Samaritan senior
citizen went there, in order to get out of the freezing cold weather.
The senior citizen had lost his job over
a year earlier. Although he had sustained an injured earlier on that frigid February morning at the bus Transfer Center, personnel
in charge at the Salvation Army Hope Center, Men’s Intake; Terrance White in particular, refused to give him a cot.
Mr. White, who was the Attendant in Charge
at the Hope Center intake post, assigned a top bunk to the injured ASCA senior citizen. White turned a deaf-ear to the pleas,
made by the older man, for a simple cot in hopes of easing his pain so he could sleep.
There were several unoccupied cots already
assembled; even so, White refused to assign one of them for the Good Samaritan ASCA senior citizen. The Good Samaritan card-carrying
member of the ASCA; a senior citizen who had an aggravated torn cartilage in his left knee from a previous football injury,
which complicated the tumble he took at the Amarillo City Bus Transfer Station, so he simply could not climb upon a top bunk
to sleep.
So, rather than running the risk of being
ejected by the staff of the Texas Panhandle Salvation Army Herrington Hope Center for sleeping on the floor, thereby voiding
access to future emergency shelter; the senior citizen decided to walk to the Waffle House located on Coulter Street and Interstate
40, there in Amarillo.
So he walked very carefully in the snow
and ice storm during the winter of 2009/2010.
Our unsung hero (AKA Fatman) knew that
he could drink coffee for a couple of hours until the morning, and then catch the city bus to the Amarillo Public Library
in order to surf the Internet, read; and to keep warm.
Senior Citizen is Unsung Superhero After Rescue of Woman and her Baby
Our Good Samaritan was just east of Austin
Street headed west on 6th Avenue, when he noticed a car stalled in the center of the lane of 6th Street & Milam Avenue
by the U-haul store.
There, a woman and her baby were inside
their car; but they were stuck in ice and snow. It looked as if the lady, who appeared to be Indian-Muslim because she was
wearing a burqa, was in the middle of making a left-hand turn. She apparently had slowed and simply came to a complete stop;
waiting for a chance to cross the street.
In reality, it was dark and she was stuck.
She was spinning her front tires in an attempt to go forward, but her tires were encased by snow and ice. According to Fatman
the Good Samaritan, it looked as if she was probably a Muslim because she looked to be Indian since she was wearing a burqa.
Her baby was strapped in a baby seat behind her, where it's supposed to be.
Fatman, the Good Samaritan told her to
hang-on for a moment. He said that he would help her car get free, so she and her baby could go home.
Fatman the unsung hero Good Samaritan
went to his storage unit, which was located only about a block from whence the young Indian-Muslim woman was stuck in the
snow and ice, with her baby strapped-in at the back seat. Fatman told her, “I’ll be back in a moment to help you.”
And he left to go to his U-haul Storage unit across Austin Street.
Fatman the Good Samaritan retrieved a
pickle-fork, which is normally used to separate automotive ball-joints; as well as his ball peen hammer." A 'pickle-fork'
is a tool that's about 10 inches long & the handle is about an inch and a half in diameter; and it has forked wider at
the end.
The Indian woman must have been terrified
when she saw Fatman the Good Samaritan coming toward her car with nothing but a pickle fork and ball peen hammer.
Those tools really are something that
could be used as weapons if the Amarillo senior citizen was an evil person, he could have easily smashed the windows of her
car and created untold, merciless havoc.
The woman started spinning the tires
like mad. Certainly she had it-floored, because she was trying to get away from Fatman the Good Samaritan. Understandably,
she was probably scared to death. Who knows what she thought? She probably thought her life depended on getting away; but,
of course, she couldn't move because she was stuck in the snow and ice.
Fatman the Good Samaritan told the Indian-Muslim
lady to relax, and please let off of the gas pedal, gesturing as he talked to help her understand what he was saying. Fatman
the ASCA senior citizen Good Samaritan chipped the ice away from her front tires. After which, he cleared the ice from around
her tires and he pushed her car despite his weaken condition; but it wouldn't budge.
Three men were traveling westbound on
old Route 66 on 6th Street happened along and stopped at the time of the rescue attempt by the Fatman the Good Samaritan.
They stopped, after seeing the situation of a car stuck; and they helped our Good Samaritan push her car free of the ice.
Happily, she drove away and took her baby to the comfort of her home.
The woman was low on gas when Fatman
the Good Samaritan got there. It looked like she was in the middle of a turn, and; quite possibly, no one would have known
about her dire straits. The woman and her baby could have frozen to death because of the frigid winter weather, if he hadn't
been there to help because no one would stop for a person that doesn’t look to be trouble.
When asked if he felt like an unsung
hero, Fatman the Good Samaritan responded with a quote by Aristotle, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore,
is not an act but a habit."
Unsung hero Fatman the Good Samaritan
continued, "I have the habit of loving my neighbor as I love myself; just like Jesus Christ instructed us to do. It doesn't
matter if someone appears to be an Indian-Muslim; she’s just another person in need of help. Besides being American,
and Americans have a great habit of helping people in need; but I'm also a Christian. The woman and her baby needed help,
and I did the American thing. I helped them."
People Helping People
Unsung hero Fatman the Good Samaritan
said that helping people is what Americans should do. His Christian philosophy is to help those in trouble, because that's
what true Christians do; and that’s what superheroes do, too.
Fatman the Good Samaritan--the unsung
hero who happened along and helped another person in dire need--continued on his way toward Waffle House. He was walking toward
Coulter Street on the left-hand side of Bushland Road, which is a 4-lane street on old Route 66 just past Western Street,
toward oncoming traffic. Two lanes had been cleared for traffic.
But--a car spun out of control, and he
had to jump out of the way to avoid it. In doing so, our Good Samaritan unsung hero sustained further injury to his knee;
plus, he irritated a old torn rotator-cuff of his left arm, which was previously injured in the year 2000.
Even though Fatman the ASCA senior citizen
good Samaritan, truly an unsung hero, needed to go to the emergency room at Northwest Texas Hospital; a man driving another
car saw the near fatal collision. So, he stopped, and asked if our Good Samaritan if he was he needed to go to the hospital.
Rather than putting the diver in further
danger by asking for a ride to hospital, our Good Samaritan unsung hero said, "I'll be alright."
When asked if he was bitter because of
being turned out into the cold, frigid night, he said, "Absolutely not. I believe it was an act of God, because I had the
opportunity to be a Good Samaritan and show someone, who might be new to America, what American is all about. That’s
what we do in America. People; especially Americans, should help people."
Had Fatman the ASCA senior citizen Good
Samaritan Superhero not been there; that woman and her baby may well have froze to death, since people traveling in an automobile
may not have had a clue that she was in trouble. Who knows?
Unsung hero or not, our Good Samaritan
said that he did what any good American should do; and he believes that he did what any true Christian would do.
Acting as a Good Samaritan in Amarillo,
he paraphrased Matthew 23:23 of the New Testament. He said, "Jesus instructed that we should tithe and that we should not
leave any good work undone. So, I morally had to help the young Indian-Muslim lady and her baby; regardless of her religion.”
Fatman the unsung hero was admitted to
the Emergency Room at Northwest Texas Hospital (NWTH), after which he underwent physical therapy for an undetermined amount
of time in NWTH while residing at the Medical Center Executive Inn.
FOX Community Church is currently paying lodging for Fatman the unsung hero at various hotels, motels, suites, inns, etc. Please make a donation to help assure continued
lodging for Fatman the ASCA senior citizen Good Samaritan and other Americans.
