In December 2001, Barry Parr was working as a window cleaner in a tiny UK village. One afternoon, just as he was finishing a job, he heard a yell and looked up to see a 14-year-old girl preparing to hang herself from a nearby tree. Already showing signs of his incipient heroism, Parr grabbed his ladder and raced across the road to try and talk her down. And that’s when things got real.
The moment Parr started to climb his ladder, the girl jumped. Luckily, Parr managed to catch her in his arms, holding her far enough off the ground tosave her life. Less luckily, he found himself now stuck up a ladder, holding a violent teenage girl desperate to squirm out of his grasp and finish the job. Bear in mind this was the middle of a very cold winter, and the two were all alone in the village. How long do you think Parr managed to hold her up for? Ten minutes? Twenty?
It was a whole hour. For an entire hour, Parr balanced on his ladder, holding a hysterical, suicidal girl aloft in the searing cold. Eventually someone realized this wasn’t performance art and called the cops—but not before Parr had proven how far the world was ready to go to keep this one lonely girl alive.
this is a story I just read. its crazy how a single person can help someone. I believe the authors purpose was to let us know that someone can help with a single action and save someones life. The author is probably telling us this to let us know there are people who care, little does everyone know. Not everyone is cruel.
