'Tell everyone on this train I love them': the meaning of a hero's final words

[Coventina]

It was 26 May 2017 on the Portland MAX light rail service when a white supremacist named Jeremy Christian began threatening two teenage girls; one of the girls was black, the other in hijab. Three other men, all strangers on the same train, stood up to Christian, defending and ultimately saving the girls. Christian attacked the three men with a knife, killing 53-year-old Ricky John Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and injuring Micah David-Cole Fletcher.

As Taliesin was bleeding, another passenger, a woman named Rachel Macy, knelt with him, comforting him and staunching his wounds. Taliesin knew he was dying. “Tell everyone on this train I love them”, he said to Macy in his final moments.

These beautiful words stopped me in my tracks when I first heard them. They gave me a directive, a way of being. At my best moments, this stranger’s last words guided where I looked, how I acted, and what I chose to do with my time.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche’s mother describes her son’s last words as “the most important thing in the whole process”. Taliesin’s father says that when he heard what his son said, “It was literally a saving grace for me.” They were a saving grace for me, too: they changed my life.
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Beautiful article by the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/09/this-mans-dying-words-changed-my-life

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for this wonderful and heartwarming story, my dear Coventina!

How sad he died--but his words won't.

[Coventina]

2. I feel exactly as you do, CP!

I'm so glad his parents raised such a wonderful man, and that his dying words brought them comfort.
I can't even imagine what it's been like for them....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. It must have been heart-wrenching for them.

To lose your child, no matter how young or old, is a terrible loss. Parents should never have to bury their kids!

But then his final words surely brought joy to them.

Desperate times can bring inspired speech to those who participate.



PS--I gave you that last heart. Your beautiful post inspired me! ?

[Coventina]

4. Aw, CP, you are just the best!!!

Thank you for the heart!!!

[Hugh_Lebowski]

13. Another for ya homegirl :) nt

[Coventina]

14. Hiya!! You're too kind!!

How are you enjoying our first 80 degree day?

I threw a hissy fit thread in the Lounge a few days ago about it.
I am NOT ready for it to be heating up again....in FEBRUARY!



Thank you for the heart!!!

[Hugh_Lebowski]

15. Well, it's beautiful out right now, but at the same time ... scary ...

both for the long-term future, and for the kind of summer we're likely to be having

Welcome

[Coventina]

17. I'm honestly starting to freak out about the long term here.

We are running out of water (FACTS!) and yet more people keep coming here.

What is going to happen when the last drop is pumped out of the last well?

It's seriously starting to scare me.

[sheshe2]

5. That brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you for posting, Coventina.

[Alice Kramden]

6. Wow

Terrible and wonderful all at once!

[Lunabell]

7. Wow.

His family and friends should be honored and proud to have known and loved him.

[renate]

8. I cannot imagine what it would be like to know such a beautiful spirit and then to lose them

What a ray of sunshine, what a joy to know, what utter heartbreak to see that bright light to go out.

Let's pause and remember Ricky Best, too. I think Taliesin wouldn't want him to be forgotten.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/05/us/portland-stabbing-rick-best-funeral/index.html
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2017/06/funeral_service_held_for_max_a.html

[CMYK]

9. He went to Reed College

My daughter went to college with him in Portland.
So sad and unnecessary, and he was so courageous!

My heart hurt then and continues to ache.

Why..............................? I keep wanting to imagine (Thanks, John L) a world where we respected each other, where we celebrated the best we can be.

[karin_sj]

10. Reading his last words broke my heart

But it filled my heart too because it showed the potential within all of us humans, despite the hate-filled ones who live among us. God bless these three men and comfort their families.

[nuxvomica]

11. A true hero in the classic sense

It is the hero's singular duty to make the world safer for the innocent. That has been the lesson of myth and literature since the first stories were ever told. Yet so many people fail to grasp it, seeking only to make themselves safer with more money or weaponry or power and then they wonder why their lives feel so empty, why nothing can fill that void. That is what these men understood instinctively, what we all can understand, and act upon. The hero has many faces, and while these men are among them, so is the single mother who sacrifices for her kids, all the way to wealthier folks that support progressive politics. We all can be heroes; in fact, we all should be. Just ask yourself before any action or decision, what is the path that will make this world, or at least my small part of it, safer for the innocent?

[Jedi Guy]

12. Interestingly, that included the man who killed him.

I don't know if I could muster up that kind of compassion and forgiveness, honestly, particularly as I lay dying. Sounds like he was a rare soul indeed.

[malaise]

16. A genuine hero

[lostnfound]

18. Why was this story not told until now?

What a beautiful soul.