He Kissed Me on the Cheek…

Do you ever consider how you would respond to situations others have handled gracefully and with true heroism? What would you do, for instance, if you worked at a school and a shooter came in threatening to kill everyone? Or what if someone got into your car, demanded all of your money and threatened to kill you? This 92-year-old woman’s response to this nightmarish situation is inspiring. In another interview with Pauline Jacobi, the 92-year-old hero in this situation, she reveals more of the details of the interaction between her and the intruder in her car:

“I asked him his name,” she said. “He said it was Ricky, and he was from Halls.”

“Ricky, you drink, don’t you?” asked Jacobi.

“He said he was hungry. I said if you didn’t spend your money on drink you’d have money for a meal.”

“Then I asked him, ‘Ricky, would you like to go to heaven?'”

“‘Yes, I sure would,'” he said. “‘But I’m afraid the Lord won’t take me.”‘

Later she reveals that in the end she gave him some money saying,

“Ricky, I’m going to give you money. Don’t spend it on liquor. Get something to eat.”

Jacobi said Ricky hesitated.

“I want you to have it,” she said. “You weren’t going to take it from me, but I’ll give it to you.

“He started to cry. Then he leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”

When I see news like this I ask myself, “Am I living the kind of life that practices virtue and builds the kind of character that would allow me to respond to these extreme situations with a similar reliance on grace and faith?” All I can say is I hope so…