MOG #89: 911

Alexandra is back for her second #mog, and writes once again with a passion unlike anyone I've encountered, and once again proves how easy it so to find things to be grateful for, as long as you just take a good look... 

There are some stories that I will remember for the rest of my life, and this is one of them.I decided it would be fun to have a couple of my closest friends from high school come over to my apartment and hang out together before school started up again. So, the weekend before school started, my high school friends drove from all over the province, from their different schools and spent the night. It was great to all be together in the same room again. It felt like no time had passed between us since the last time we were all together, even though we were missing a few people. It felt like the first time in a long time where I truly let go of everything, and just enjoyed the night. I wasn’t worried about school, my job, anything. All I thought about was the company in my living room. And it was great. We played some card games, and one of our favourites, The Game of Things. (For a bit of context, Things is a game where each player writes down one “thing” that relates to the given category, and other players have to guess who said which thing.) We had a few drinks, lots of junk food, and an endless amount of laughter.

The night started to wind down a little when my one friend started feeling a little off, saying he just needed to sit down for a minute. His breathing got heavy, and his heartbeat irregular. Even though I knew he didn’t drink that much, I knew that these were the beginning signs of the alcohol poisoning he suffered the last time we were together, a few months before. Air mattresses were blown up, and my friend was lying down on it, saying that he just needed to focus on his breathing. That was when I really started to worry. The rest of my friends settled into their own make-shift beds around 2:30 in the morning, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep yet. So, I started to clear away empty bottles, pick up pieces of popcorn, and also pick up all of the Things slips that ended up on the floor (and we played that game a lot, there were lots of pieces of paper on the ground). When I was satisfied with the amount that I had cleaned, and knew I couldn’t progress further without risking waking one of my friends, I headed to my own bedroom to get ready for bed. I listened for a minute to the sound of my friend’s heavy breathing, and decided to read a chapter of my book before heading to sleep, so I would still be awake just in case.


Before I could finish two pages, I heard voices from the other room, rustling, and then watched my friend walk to the bathroom, wrapped up in his blankets. He sat on the bathroom floor, leaning against the counter. I walked in and knelt down next to him. “Just in case,” he whispered. We spent the next few minutes on the bathroom floor, me rubbing his back, him focusing on breathing, me freaking out, him shivering and trembling. Finally, at 3 o’clock, we decided to call an ambulance. After what happened to him last time, I did not want to take any chances. So, I sat down on the edge of the tub beside him, my thumb hoovering over the number 9. “Don’t be scared,” he said, comforting me. And I stopped for a moment. As nervous as I was to call 911, I knew my friend needed the help. He was sick, he was the one who needed help, and he was the one comforting me. It was that moment that I became aware of just how grateful I am to have him as a friend. After knowing him for years.

The paramedics came, and we went to the hospital. We spent five long hours in the small emergency room. A nurse would occasionally pop their head in to tell us that “the ER doc will be seeing you shortly” or that “the ER docs are just switching their shifts, so there might be a bit more of a delay”. We had never really spent more than 20 minutes together, just the two of us, in all of the years of knowing each other. The only times we saw each other outside of school was at parties, and I was always closer with his girlfriend (of three and a half years, they’re so adorable). We spent five hours asking each other questions, telling each other stories, realizing just how much we have in common. We decided that we would make more of an effort this year to stay in touch, because there were so many times this passed year that we could’ve helped each other out. We also decided: no more drinking.

At 8:30 in the morning, we walked outside, feeling the bright, hot sunshine, and the freedom from the hospital. And we went straight to McDonalds for breakfast. The rest of the partygoers had to leave shortly after breakfast, because I had a meeting during the day. But after getting no sleep at all, I was not going to let my friend drive an hour to get home. So, he slept in my apartment while I went out. He texted me a few hours later, an interesting message that read: “Funniest part of this all. I wake up and pack my air mattress and this is the Things slip of paper I find:” and a picture of the slip that read: Dial 911. It was the only slip I didn’t pick up the night before.

He dropped off my keys, endlessly thanking me for everything, and with a hug goodbye, he drove home. When I got back to my apartment a few hours later, he cleaned the whole thing, right down to drying the dishes and putting them away, and he left a pile of snacks on the counter for me. I stopped and stared for a minute.

I’m so grateful for so many things that happened that night, that I feel completely overwhelmed with gratitude. For my friend’s health, for the company of my old friends, for the laughter and the fun, for spending the night at the hospital and turning it into an enjoyable time, for McDonalds breakfast sandwiches, for everything. Mostly, for people who, even at their worst, are determined to make things the best that they can be for other people.