COMMENTARY
MILT THOMAS
Last Saturday my wife and I decided to go see a movie, Gone Girl, with Ben Affleck, which spent two weeks as the number one movie in the land, a fairly good barometer of audience approval. We like to go to the movies, usually, to suspend disbelief for a few hours, become involved in the story on the screen and forget everything else going on in our lives.
Somehow, there are always reminders of real life though. A patron didn’t turn off his cellphone as he should, or you can hear rain on the theater roof, or someone starts gasping loudly for air several rows behind you. That’s what happened last Saturday night. People around him started shouting to turn up the lights. Someone called 911. A policeman appeared and said the man wasn’t breathing, so he moved him to the floor and began chest compressions. The lights went up, the movie stopped as the real life drama went on. Patrons were asked to leave, since by now the few people in the theater were standing in shocked silence witnessing attempts to save his life.
So we walked out of the theater with others, no one speaking. As we left the theater, emergency vehicles arrived. We didn’t discuss the movie afterwards since we don’t know how it ended. We talked about our lives instead.
We have not found out what finally happened to the man in distress, but it proved once again that real life drama always trumps what is on the movie screen because it is real and it is happening to us, not some actor playing a fictional character. And that drama can occur in our lives any place, any time, usually when we least expect it.
This incident is just one more reminder that life is fragile and you can never take anything for granted. Hug the ones you love nearest you and call your loved ones far away, tell them you love them. Take that vacation you have been promising, get that checkup you postponed. But most of all, live your life to the fullest. There’s no second act or sequel to this story. You only get one shot at life so make it count.
Indian River Guardian 
The older that I get the more wise my mother becomes. She was of the old school and practiced the old fashoned mantra that you treat others as you want to be treated. Yet she taught me that this was not enough. You also have to “hug” those that you don’t know. The smile or kind word that you give to someone that you don’t know might be the nicest thing that anyone said to them in a long while. So we all need to share a “hug” each day..
Thanks for the reminder, Milt. We can make all the big plans for the future we want, but living each moment of each day is really all we have. Hope the fellow requiring emergency assistance made it.
Unfortunately, the fellow did not make it; he died of a massive heart attack. His name was James (Jay) Aaron Holmes, 58 years old, and he was my significant other for almost seven years. We were out for our “date night”, at the Majestic to see Gone Girl.
911 was called, but there was a train stopped on the tracks and the ambulance could not cross to get to the theatre; persons I know said they sat there for 12 minutes waiting for the train to move. The ambulance at the rescue station closest to the Majestic was already out, so a unit from the Oslo station had to be dispatched, which must have taken another 15-20 minutes.
Everyone in the little Theatre # 8 of the Majestic was wonderful. The first time I yelled, “call 911”, I believe everyone in that theatre was calling 911. There was immediate help from a sheriff’s deputy administering CPR, and he worked really hard on Jay. Then there were ambulances, EMTs, deputies, and theatre employees all working together to try to save his life. Most of the patrons in theatre 8 stayed with me until it was time to leave; everyone was so kind and concerned. Jay was pronounced dead at the hospital.
I miss him so very much. I agree–“live your life to the fullest”, “live your life like there’s not going to be a tomorrow”. Jay certainly had no idea he wouldn’t be coming home after his date night.