Photo: Garrett Nicholson/Facebook
A Federal Express driver in Rogersville, Tennessee, reportedly saved a woman’s life on Tuesday after she allegedly made a suicide attempt off of a local bridge.
Garrett Nicholson, 42, held the arm of a 54-year-old woman dangling over the Marble Hall Road bridge for five minutes until officers from the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office could help pull her to safety, theKingsport Times Newsreported.
Nicholson said he first saw the woman — whose identity has not been released — when he was driving past the bridge shortly before 6.p.m. local time that day, according to the newspaper. Her claimed her car was abandoned in the middle of the road and she was sitting on the edge of the structure nearly 40 feet above Caney Creek’s rocky water bed.
Concerned, Nicholson said he stopped his car and approached the woman, asking her if she was okay. When she allegedly said she was considering suicide, he blocked traffic with his car and slowly came closer to her, attempting to “talk her down.”
“I got within arm’s reach, because she wasn’t listening or anything,” Nicholson recalled to theKingsport Times News. “She seemed pretty out of it.”
According to theCitizen Tribune, another man on the scene — David Reed — also said he helped Nicholson hold up the woman.
Representatives from FedEx and the HCSO did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but officers told theKingsport Times Newsthat the woman was later handcuffed and taken for an emergency committal and mental evaluation.
“I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to hold her,” Nicholson told theKingsport Times News. “Fortunately, where I work at FedEx, I load boxes all day, and you kind of get used to holding on to heavy things. I was just really scared that she was going to fall, and it was kind of one of those things that you just keep praying to God for strength to keep holding her until someone arrived to help me.”
“She just went dead weight and was dangling off the side of the bridge,” he claimed to theKingsport Times News. “It seemed like it was hours, but it was maybe five minutes.”
The Citizen Tribunealso reported that Nicholson was once a first responder in Phoenix.
Caney Creek did not have enough water in it to break the woman’s fall, Nicholson said to theKingsport Times News. “The water level was down,” he explained to theKingsport Times News. “If she would have jumped, she’d have probably hit ground. She’d have landed in water and hit the rocks too because there wasn’t enough water to break her fall.”
Nicholson said that the entire experience reminded him of the important things in life.
“There’s no problem in this life that is worth suicide,” Nicholson said to the outlet. “Problems are temporary. That’s permanent and nothing is that bad. I don’t know what darkness she was going through that made jumping the better alternative. I just hope it gets better for her. I hope she gets help.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “help” to theCrisis Text Lineat 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
