October 14, 1987, eighteen-month-old Jessica was playing in
the yard of her aunt’s home/daycare center. Her mother was watching, but turned
away to answer the phone. Jessica fell into a well that was 22’ deep and 8”
wide. Rescuers worked nearly 60 hours to free her, while CNN provided round-the-clock
coverage. As President Reagan said, we all felt like “Baby Jessica’s” godparents.
Jessica survived the ordeal, but the limelight exacted a toll. Her parents, who
were eighteen when it happened, divorced a few years after. And their divorce
only gave the media more fuel. The paramedic who crawled down a cross-tunnel to
pull Jessica out was celebrated as a hero. But he suffered from post-traumatic
stress disorder and took his own life nine years later. If this story has a
moral, it’s that we need to take better care of each other – of toddlers playing
in back yards, of young couples starting out, and of heroes who themselves need
rescuing.
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