She awakened in the middle of the night, when her condo began shaking. Esther Gorfinkel quickly put on a robe and headed down the stairs in her slippers. Later she would learn the unimaginable had happened that night, when half of the Champlain Towers South condominiums in Surfside, Florida, suddenly collapsed.
In the darkness, she met families rushing down from the 11th floor, who wanted to help her, but she told one man, Alfredo Aguera, not to bother. “I’ve had a good, long life. I’m 88 years old.”
He encouraged her by saying, “You’re going to make it to your 89th birthday — I promise.”
As the group continued down the stairs, her knee became so painful she said she couldn’t go on. “Stopping is not an option,” declared another man, Alfredo Lopez, who then began carrying her.
“There was no way you were going to let her stay there,” an interviewer later said to Lopez.
“It didn’t even occur to me,” he replied. “She’s a human being!”
He spoke an obvious truth, because people with a clear moral compass would never abandon someone. After all, human life is unquestionably precious, because it comes from God.
There were three Catholic priests and five Protestant ministers on board the Titanic, none of whom survived. These heroes refused spaces in the life boats and stayed on the ship, comforting the terrified people as the boat sank. They knew life is precious, even until the moment of death.
The men in the condo-collapse disaster were heroes, and will be remembered as such, but the people who routinely “rescue” elderly folks from loneliness rarely get applause.
These kind souls sit at the bedside and listen to old stories, repeated often. They bring along homemade cookies and the latest family photos. Sometimes they’d rather be crossing items off their to-do list. There’s the lawn to mow, supper to make, groceries to buy, children to take to practice.
But these heroes won’t abandon the elderly, even though society devalues them. Sadly, old people aren’t seen as role models, while sports figures and movie stars are worshiped.
When people near the end of life, they may be largely forgotten by former neighbors — and spouses and siblings have died. Tragically, some people, who don’t see human life as God-given, consider them candidates for assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Often an elderly person’s big fear is burdening others. My aunt in her 90s told her daughter she didn’t want to trouble her, even though my cousin assured her this wasn’t true. I’m guessing Esther feared burdening her heroes, since she could have slowed them down — and every second counted.
But the heroes wouldn’t leave her, because they knew that the life of an old woman is precious, which our ancestors accepted without debate. Too bad that unquestionable value is slowly eroding today.
Like the clergy on the Titanic, Esther’s rescuers realized that the simple statement “She’s a human being” says it all. I pray our world will have more heroes like these men.
Lorraine serves as a Eucharistic minister and lector at her church. Her email address is lorrainevmurray@yahoo.com.
