My Hero

Addison had her first swim lesson yesterday. More on that later.

Before leaving, I had to stop by the front desk to ask a question. There was some sort of confrontation on the other side of the desk, I noticed it right away. At first it was just words, but then I saw a "boy" (he was maybe 16 or 17 years old?) slap a woman (she was probably 50?) I tried to tell Mike, sort of under my breath, so as to not cause a scene or draw more attention to it, and bless him, he was very "Mike" about it. Huh? What? Then the boy punched the woman in the face, calling her every curse word under the sun. I then loudly told Mike what was going on, and when we both looked back over, he had her under his arm and was pulling his hair with all his might. I told Mike to go and help her! She was all alone over there and was being attacked!

So, Mike ran over and immediately utilized his hold training he'd learned back from his Region 13 days. This boy was STRONG. Finally the YMCA staff woke up and called for back-up. A few men ran over to help. There were literally 4 men trying to pry this boy off of the woman. As soon as he could free an arm, he used it to either punch the woman, or whichever man he could reach. Luckily, Mike never got hit.

While this is happening, I'm trying to keep Addison and Aiden away from the scene. The YMCA had finally called 911 and were trying to re-route the people coming in the front doors. They put the most incompetent staff members on this job, I swear. So I started doing their job, making sure no one came near the commotion.

By this point, they've got the boy on the floor, but all 4 men were still required to hold him down. He was bleeding from his mouth and was still VERY strong and aggressive. Shouting profanities and trying his hardest to hit whoever he could.

The woman behind the desk told me that he was "special needs" and the woman was his "job trainer". It was his first day. They had called his mom, and she showed up within minutes. It seemed like when she showed up, he calmed down a bit, but still all 4 men were on top of him. She was on the brink of tears- almost like this was new to her, like she'd not dealt with this before.

The police showed up, and then the paramedics. Once he was able to, Mike left the situation.

It was CRAZY. If Mike hadn't intervened when he did, I wonder how much longer the boy would have attacked the woman, how much harm he could have done? I don't like to think about it.

On the way home, I said something to Mike about using his old Region 13 moves. He told me he had one student last year who he had to hold down like that many times over the year. He said his student wasn't quite as strong as this YMCA kid, but close. And that he was just as violent, except most of the time self-inflicting- banging his head on the floor, etc. I can't even imagine seeing this! And then coming home, cool as a cucumber.

He is my hero. My husband, my hero.