People on Reddit were asked: “What’s something that you saw that you will never forget?” These are some of the best answers.
Flying to Orlando with my wife and kids one afternoon for a Disney vacation. My son and I are on the left side of the aisle, wife and daughter on the right side in the same row. The flight had gone out over the Atlantic and was lining up on approach into Orlando, coming in over the coast just north of Canaveral.
We were at about 15,000 feet and I pointed out Canaveral to my son and told him the space shuttle was due to launch some time that afternoon. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when we see the rockets fire and the shuttle lifted off and arced out over the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful and stunning. I have seen it from the ground on a couple of occasions, but to see it from the air was amazing.
TribeFaninPA
A homeless man on the streets of Baltimore, standing on North Ave, facing the street, pissing directly into traffic, while two women pushing strollers walked by like it was the most normal thing in the world. My first day in town.
citymadeofashes
I’ve been a EMT since 2006 and a medic since 2011 in one of the most violent areas in the US. I took a 15 year old kid who got caught in some crossfire and took multiple large caliber rounds to his torso. He was pretty blown apart, insides were outside, stuff like that. He just cried and said please don’t let me die over and over. He died right in front of me and there was nothing I could do.
sublimaze1
Radiohead in concert. Rained all damn day, we were standing in a mud pit for three hours to hold our spot. It cleared when they opened up, and they just plain crushed it, all to the backdrop of this incredible sunset, and fireworks going off at Mt Royal behind us. That concert meant I was eating ramen noodles for a month to afford it but damn, it was worth every tasteless noodle.
ballcups_4_thrillho
I’ll never forget how beautiful my friend looked in her dress going to the senior ball. It’s one of those cheesy moments where you see an “average girl” become the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen type thing.
Again this is super cheesy, but very very true.
SinusMonstrum
I sailed on a tallship from Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro. When we were about halfway, right in the middle of the Atlantic I was up the mast at dusk with a few others watching the sunset. Just as the sun was setting behind us I noticed a murky brown/green stain that seemed like it was leaking from the side of the boat. It kept getting bigger and bigger until I realized we were emptying the sewage tanks for the ship. I still have a laugh every time I remember this.
nandoschips
I saw The Next Step (Canadian TV show about dancing) in concert with my younger sister who has Down Syndrome. I will never forget the anticipation or the look of joy and excitement on her face before the concert and how she couldn’t take her eyes off the stage. The dancers were amazing (and really talented) but being able to share it with her was the best experience.
thelostandthefound
I watched my mother die slowly from a coma. They removed her breathing machine and her heartbeat declined in front of me until everything stopped.
I knew she was gone when I saw her at the hospital. The machine was only keeping her heart beating.
It’s the type of pain that makes you feel alive but also dead inside. I won’t ever feel that pain again in my life. I cried harder than I have in my entire life and went numb for 3 months. Handled it better than siblings.
It hit me when I was on a date and I broke down while eating a pretzel at the movie theater waiting for our movie to start.
Retspihi
Amsterdam, New Year’s Eve 2006. There was a huge string of firecrackers going off in an open square. Some guy ran out of a bar, picked up the non exploding end of the firecrackers and whirled the string around his head, launching firecrackers everywhere until it burnt down to him and he was engulfed in explosions.
He then ran back into the bar like it was nothing.
Sqwalnoc
I was travelling in Korea alone, after my ex and I of 4 years had broken up. It was a nice, sunny, and normal evening. I was sitting on a train going somewhere in seoul, and I saw this young mother and her daughter sitting across from me. The daughter was sleeping on her mother’s lap, without a care in the world.
As the train was approaching their stop, the mom woke her child up without words and gave her a smile only a loving mom could give. The daughter, still a little disoriented, gave her best smile back at her mom, but it looked silly because she was still sleepy. I thought it was funny. They left the train and I never saw them again. The silent connection I had witnessed between the mother and her daughter through smiles made me really happy for some reason.
cyndyquil
At the train station after coming back from a class trip, I witnessed a man walking in the opposite direction. Maybe in his late 50s, he was wearing a brown suit coat and tie. As he passed me, he sneezed. Into both elbows. Simultaneously. Without breaking stride or moving his head, like Goku powering up but with less yelling. It was surreal, and I will probably never witness it again.
EmberordofFire
I saw Halley’s Comet in 1986. Set the alarm for 3am on the night of what was supposed to be the best view, and it was truly beautiful, spread out across half the sky.
Also, my first shooting star. A total eclipse of the sun. Jupiter with a bright spot on the side of it where a comet had just smacked into it. The most recent big showing of the Leonids, with bright green sparks wheee-ing silently overhead.
L1ttl3J1m
I saw a girl plummet to her death directly in front of me. She was jumping between buildings to get into a rave, fell and smashed her head into a metal bench in the smoking area about 10 feet in front of me.
Pallis1939
The birth of my son.
Stress levels through the roof because of all the “what if this goes wrong…” thought, then turning into bottomless euphoria.
Idlewild69
I was driving home one night, and I saw a deer that had been hit by a car. The thing was still alive and struggling, but it was obviously going to die. Its guts were hanging out of its nether regions. I got out, called the police, and tried to get it out of the road.
Another woman showed up, older lady, she walked up and picked it up and held it. The poor thing was obviously uncomfortable with this, as it was screaming as she tried to hold it. The cop showed up and had to convince the lady to let it go, she was crying and refusing to let it go when I went home. I found out a few weeks later the police took it into a little wooded area between the road and the local hospice center, and let it rot.
nupary
I saw bleachers collapse onto a dozen high school kids that were trying to move them. They were mounted on wheels and they were supposed to be motorized. But the motors had long since stopped working and the school would just have the students push them. I heard a crashing noise and watched as it collapsed in slow motion from one end to the other. It was about 150 feet long, 20 feet tall and the collapse started at one end and progressed down the row to the other.
We were all in shock because the screaming stopped when the collapse stopped. I thought they were all dead. But nope. There were no serious injuries because the way it collapsed, there was a gap underneath and all the kids were huddled in the gap. One kid hurt his ankle but there were no other injuries.
DaleKerbal
I was at the airport bathroom at Incheon, South Korea and I saw this tourist squat and take a [poop] in the corner because all the stalls were full. He didn’t even wipe.
effin_clownin
It was while me and my wife were at an early stage in our relationship. We were leaving the apartment I was living in at the time and I don’t remember what we talked about or where we were going. But what I do remember is her smile. Her tan skin, her hair framing her face, her lips that form such an amazingly beautiful smile and those eyes seeming to glimmer of being in love.
I have never seen her so beautiful as when she smiled at me that time. Not because she’s never given that smile ever after, but because it was the first time I truly saw it.
I’ll never forget that smile. I really, really cherish that memory. It’s one of the most beautiful and wonderful things I’ve ever seen.
LeaflessTree
I work in a hospital and saw a bunch of doctors and paramedics revive somebody who got a heart attack in an elevator. It’s been a few years now and I even remember the name of the patient and his facial features. Those are some pictures that stick the whole life with you.
ordinarymale
I was driving home from work when I passed a car with a Mum driving and two kids in the back, around 12 or 13 y.o. They were ginger and all had really prominent buck teeth. Well, they were just laughing and laughing and just having a riot.
I don’t know why it’s stuck with me these 30 odd years, but I thought it was beautiful seeing them so happy, it was like a Rockwell painting.
3d_ist
My husband and I honeymooned on a relatively undeveloped Caribbean island in the middle of hurricane season. It worked out; weather was gorgeous and we were the only tourists on the island.
I really wanted to see sea turtles. We rented snorkelling gear for the whole time we were there, and just tramped out to various beaches, often via long weird trails through mangrove swamps, and jumped in. We saw rays, eels, huge dancing schools of fish….but no turtles.
On one of our last days there, we swam from the big island to a tiny little cay about a quarter mile offshore. We were the only people in the world. Coming up to the cay, the sea floor slowly sloped up and became an underwater field of sea grass. Turtles were grazing like cows.
It was absolutely beautiful. I can die happy after that day.
quittingquittingquit
I have large windows in my living room and a large grouse-like bird flew into it… HARD. It was with another bird of the same species, and the bird that hit the window was obviously in shock, but still alive. I watched the other bird violent peck and drag this shocked bird across our deck until it died. Honestly, if that other bird didn’t beat it to death, I feel like it would’ve recovered. I had to awkwardly dispose of that body before my dog got to it.
DelusionalPapaya
Working as an EMT I saw a lot. But this one was weird.
Had to pick up this kid, like 20 years old, from a nursing home due to running a fever. History was that he was a gang member and awhile back got shot 5 times, a few hitting and basically shattering his pelvis beyond repair. Was wheelchair bound, with a lot of nerve damage (as in didn’t really feel anything but faint tingling in his legs)
Anyway, during the run he asked me if I wanted to see a ‘trick’. He proceeded to pull his pants down slightly. Due to the damage he had some open wounds in the pelvic area.
“Check this out,” he said, or something like that. With the limited muscle control he had, he spasmed, and his femur shot a few inches outside of his body. Think wolverines power if it was completely useless. I heard a ‘splort’ and am suddenly staring at a bloody bone. With another twitch, he retracted it.
I mentioned this probably wasn’t a safe thing to due, and he laughed. He knew he wasn’t ever gonna walk again, so he liked to freak people out.
KMApok
I once saw a donkey chase a lady in a wheelchair.
alexw1191