Lives Ruined In A Single Day
It only takes a split second for life to change for the worse. When asked, these Redditors tell some heart-wrenching stories about when one bad decision altered the course of someone’s life and led them to ruin. If only one could turn back time…
1. Dragged And Done
In college, my ex’s friend was pulled over for speeding; he had dope and booze in his system. When the officer reached into his truck to grab the keys, he panicked and did the worst possible thing. He took off, thinking the officer would let go. However, he didn’t. The officer was dragged for quite a ways before eventually falling to the ground and hitting his head.
The officer didn't make it. My ex’s friend was charged with a capital offense and was sentenced to 20 years in a Mississippi state prison. He was 21 years old and ruined his entire life in one night.
2. Nokia Knock-Out
A colleague I knew was a happy, enthusiastic developer, but he disliked bossy bosses. Other than that, he worked 50 hours for fun when you asked for 40, and was a stand-up guy. Then, we had a change of management with some dude who came in on a transfer. He was the absolute worst. He started leading us Nordic developers using American methods and a lot more “do as I say” intimidation and even shouting.
He clearly saw us as below his stature and just nerds who should be browbeaten into place.
At the start, my colleague thought it was a joke, that the boss was testing the limits of what he could do, or even that he was just nervous about starting out in a new place.
After two weeks, the boss was still using his bossy style, and my friend realized that it was not a joke or a passing phase.
He started pushing back, at first friendly then firmly. The boss took it as a challenge to his leadership. He and my colleague had heated discussions and then even more heated closed-room discussions in the same week.
A week later, the mood was bleak and my friend was not having ANY of the boss's continued intimidation tactics, even with threats of dismissal.
When the boss decided to humiliate my colleague in front of the 14-man team for an underwhelming project that my colleague had helped save during an all-nighter, that was the final straw. My colleague flipped. He got up, furious, and took his cell phone—the Nokia brick type—and tossed it full force at the boss's face. The boss ducked, but it caught him clean in the jaw.
It broke his jaw and teeth—there was blood flying everywhere—and it knocked him out cold for a minute and gave him a concussion.
My colleague just yelled something out, and with a stunned 12 people watching, he just went back to his place, grabbed his coat and personal phone, and walked out crying. No one held him back, and he served a year for the incident.
Later, I helped him get a job at a much lower status, but he was never the same guy and he started drinking.
3. Their Lives Were Tainted
A friend's son was with his recently-engaged fiance who had a serious nut allergy. They were not far from Bendigo and stopped off at a cafe to buy sandwiches.
The woman running the cafe assured them there were no nuts anywhere near the sandwiches, so they bought them and then went on their way. As they were driving out away from town, she was nibbling on the sandwiches.
Then, she started struggling to breathe. He stopped the car, got out, figured out what was going on, and went to the back of the car to get her Epipen, which he struggled to find. By the time he did find it, she was gone. But the tragedy wasn't over. A couple of weeks after the funeral, he got in his car and drove back to the stretch of the roadside where she lost her life.
He put his foot down on the accelerator and deliberately aimed his car at a power pole. He'd left his mom a note. The contamination turned out to be an accidental tainting of a bread batch.
The cafe owner did not know about it, nor did the bakery until that incident.
4. A Hero To The End
I was a teacher and coach. For a field trip, the principal "could not afford two buses".
So, I had to walk about ten girls to the field trip location and back to school, while the one bus was filled with the rest of the junior high students and faculty. It was about a mile each way.
I chose the girls from my team because they would listen to me outdoors, unlike lots of middle school kids.
We were crossing the street in the crosswalk, with the walk signal in our favor. All the kids went first, and like girls, they were clumped together and chatting while walking. I noticed a woman making a left turn into our crosswalk. She never saw us as she tried to accelerate to beat an oncoming car. I knew she was going to run right through the girls. I didn't think, I just acted.
I pushed the kids forward, very forcefully. Most of the girls fell onto the pavement in front of other vehicles waiting at their red light.
They were badly scraped up from my pushing them, but they didn’t need a hospital or doctor for their scrapes. I don't remember the impact, but I remember seeing a Pontiac symbol between the headlights.
When I came too, I was in a whole different lane facing where I had just come from. I could not get up. They say my body went up the car, and off the driver's side, tearing the side mirror off, and breaking her windshield.
There was horror and crying from my student-athletes. The girls raised me onto a backboard when the ambulance came, which must have been mortifying.
Now, 20 years later, I am still an ambulatory wheelchair user. I can't teach or coach, can't work at a desk, and I have chronic pain. My life can be really sucky, but I would not change what I did that day.
When I get low emotionally from all my limitations, I remember those girls. I watched them go to college, get married, grow into mothers, and hold impressive jobs in their fields.
When they post a photo on Facebook of their happy moments, it recharges me to know they are safe, healthy, and happy, and it reaffirms my decision to save them from harm.
