Heroism must run in this family. Check this out:As the 37-year-old Douglasville, Georgia, man [Zack Stephney] set out September 22 to try and save a woman whose car was swept away by rushing waters, he thought of his father's drowning. He, too, had fought to rescue people struggling against currents.> Read the full amazing story here at CNNThat was in 1979.
Tommie Stephney, a City of Atlanta employee, dove into the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, Georgia, to save canoeists who'd flipped their boat, his son said. He safely brought two to shore. The third, he said, panicked -- forcing them both under. It would be a week before his father's body was found.
A week later, the death toll in Georgia from the floods was 10. Standing along the fence still tangled with weeds and debris, Stephney peered down at Brooks' mucked-up car, knowing that number could have been higher....
"It could've happened to me the same way it did my dad," Stephney said.
The "what ifs" keep spinning through his head:
What if her window hadn't been down?
What if they 'd never spotted her?
What if she'd failed to stay calm?
Mixed in are thoughts about his father, a man he in many ways struggles to remember.
What Stephney did was not unlike the countless heroic efforts that played out in disaster areas during the flood. First responders and regular citizens risked their own lives to save others.
But he had something else pushing him, the kind of inspiration rooted in family legacy. And without a doubt, Tommie Stephney would have been proud of his boy.
Eerie. Also, if you read the story, you'll find out that he showered and then put in a full day's work. I would think it would be hard to concentrate after such an adrenaline rush!
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