What is one of the most selfless things you have done?

This is a tough story to share because there are so many emotions (and a little bit of dirty laundry) wrapped up in it. But it is an important story too. As a teenager, my mother had at least one affair that I know of. It was the summer after my graduation from high school, and my Grandma Jo had been battling cancer for some time. I’d recently won the title of Miss Tioga Teenager, and during this time, I would make appearances at events such as other pageants. We were attending one such event on the evening when we’d found out my Grandma was in worse shape. I don’t remember the details, but I do remember that my mother was overwrought. She wound up leaving the event abruptly.

Later, once home, and once my sister Michele was in bed, Dad and I had a talk. He sobbed. He was convinced Mom had gone to be with her lover. He feared he’d lost her for good. As he spoke, I feared that he was desperate and wasn’t thinking clearly. I was 18 years old and had never understood why anyone would want to take their life, but as he talked it was as if I was watching a man who was in the process of deciding that’s exactly what he planned to do. It terrified me. After what seemed like hours, I got ready for bed. But before going to bed, I snuck into Mom and Dad’s room, found Dad’s gun in his closet, and hid it in my room. The emotion of the evening was exhausting and I was fast asleep when Dad came into my room. He wanted to know if I knew where his gun was. I’m not sure what I told him, though somehow I was able to get him to leave my room and let me go back to sleep.

Then, early in the morning when it was barely light, I carried the gun out to my car, hiding it under the passenger’s seat, and drove to my Uncle Danny’s house about 20 minutes away. My heart pounded! I don’t know what I would have done if I’d been pulled over or how I would have explained the gun. I made it safely, and Danny agreed to keep the gun until we both felt Dad was in a safer frame of mind. I found out later that Dad had made a suicide video, though I’ve never seen it.

I couldn’t imagine having to face my sisters if Dad had taken his life. And at the time, I didn’t feel I had any choice but to intervene. After that, things between Mom and Dad slowly and gradually improved.