Charlie's 9-1-1 Call

I remember it was, uh...

Mr. Stamp, but...

He said 'Charlie'

He said 'Charlie' and I said 'Hi Charlie'

And he said, 'Charlie Stamp'

And so I started calling him Mr. Stamp

And then he said, 'He's not breathing'

And I said, uh, I said, oh God, this is...

I said, 'Who?'

And he said his friend's name

His friend, he had, uh, jumped off this bridge

This bridge, I guess

But it's not, uh, I guess it's not very high, or it is, it is high

But Charlie, uh, Mr. Stamp

Had jumped in after him, after his friend

I guess, they were talking--

He said he'd been sad, depressed, upset

His friend--sad, depressed, upset

He said--this was later

This was--we were talking

I was trying to keep him talking

Until the, uh, the ambulance showed up

And also, uh, we had tried CPR

But I wanted him to wait

Until the ambulance got there

And part of me thought

That probably, uh, that probably he was, that his friend was--

Uh, so we were talking

I was trying to keep him talking

And he said, they had gotten drunk

And gone to the bridge

And were talking

And then his friend was walking on the, uh, the railing, I guess?

The railing of the bridge?

Over the, uh, the boundary

The thing that separates, you know?

And uh, Charlie's friend, I guess

He started crying

And saying 'I love you'

And Charlie said, Mr. Stamp said--

'I know'

And his friend kept saying 'You don't, you don't know'

And Mr. Stamp could see he was upset

And he'd been upset

And then he just fell, his friend

He just--fell backwards

And Charlie screamed and ran down a ways

Down the bridge

So that the impact would be lower

So he could jump in after him

But by the time he found him

...He pulled him out and...

This driver had stopped

Had seen Mr. Stamp pulling his friend out of the water

And that's the phone they used to call 9-1-1

And I answered

And...

Mostly I just tried to keep him talking

He kept saying 'He has a wife.  He has kids.  He has a wife.  He has kids.'

Kept saying it

And I kept telling him to stay calm

And just wait

And the ambulance would be there soon

And, uh...

That was the first call I ever got like that

And...

I quit after that

That was the last call I took

I went into retail

Became a store manager at a candle place

I just...

Something about that call

But I remember Mr. Stamp saying he jumped in after him

Saying 'I jumped in.  I jumped in after him.'

And I think...

I think he must have been quite the person to do that

To do that sort of thing

He must have been...

...A very good person