Acts Of Kindness Challenge - A Human Story

A long time ago, when I was a kid growing up in the arctic at a gold mine in Discovery, NWT we had miner named Elmer.
He was in his 30's and worked underground. He was a large man with a big belly. He must have weighed over 300 pounds.
I always remember him because he and his friend who was just a small guy had a little boat that they used to take out on the lake to go fishing. Elmer would sit in the back of the boat and his friend in the front. It was so funny to see them because the bow of the boat would be way out of the water. It always made me laugh!

One day while working underground after blasting, Elmer and a young guy about 23 where scaling the roof. Scaling is when the miners took loose chunks of rock down from the ceiling using long crowbars. The young guy was standing beside the pit and Elmer was a slight distance away from him.
All of a sudden Elmer must have seen something on the ceiling. He rushed over and pushed the young guy out of the way saving his life.
A big piece of rock weighing over a ton fell from the roof and caught Elmer who got knocked down the pit with this chunk of rock on top of him. He died instantly.
Without a thought for his own safety he saved the young guys life and made the ultimate sacrifice.
I cried when I heard the news of what had happened as I knew I would never see Elmer again fishing in his little boat.

This is a true story and shows the capacity and unselfishness of the human heart.

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