We all come to believe that all heroes save the day.
In times of distress and trouble, these superheroes come to the rescue.
They’re always at the right timing to save us from the bad guys or even come together (like The Avengers: Endgame) and do whatever they can to save the day.
However, superheroes are humans, too.
Thus, they have their limitations.
Like Superman is to kryptonite, each of our beloved fictional heroes has some weakness. And at some point, the bad guys use this to win. There are lives that they just can’t save.
Officer Damian Cole wished he could be the hero for five-year-old Joshua Garcia.
A boy he’ll never forget.
Officer Cole received a call from Joshua’s mother on a Saturday reporting her son was missing. He immediately responded and searched for the boy.
He arrived at the Garcias’ neighbor’s backyard pool.
Joshua’s mom was already there, trying to find her soon in the pool.
The water was too murky to see.
It was dark and full of dirt and debris. They couldn’t see anything underneath it.
Officer Cole did what he had to do; he went into the murky water to search for the boy.
He suddenly stumbled on the boy’s body.
He rushed the body to the ground, called for the medical emergency team, and performed CPR.
After an hour of trying to revive the boy, the hospital called out his time of death. Joshua’s family was devastated, and so was Officer Cole.
For him, it was the most heartbreaking alarm call he ever had.
He cannot stop thinking about the boy and his family, and he promised he’d do anything to honor his memory.
So, when Joshua’s family called to meet with him, he was glad to do so.
They wanted a favor from him.
As they were planning for Joshua’s funeral, they asked the officer one favor.
The brothers found out that Officer Cole was a member of a group of policemen who dressed up as superheroes and visited children with cancer.
They thought it was the perfect send-off for their little brother who loved Spiderman.
Officer Cole kept his word.
On a Tuesday at Laurel Land Memorial Park, Officer Cole arrived in a Spiderman costume.
He stood by the boy’s casket throughout the service, and the people couldn’t stop crying.
After all, there stood the man they considered a hero, wearing the costume of Joshua’s favorite superhero.
But Officer Cole doesn’t feel like a hero.
The family gave him a wooden token honoring his heroic act, but the brave officer wished he could’ve done better.
He said that if he were a real superhero, he’d have superpowers to save the boy like he wanted to.
Joshua’s family feels differently.
For the Garcia family, what he did was enough to be called a hero.
They saw how he rushed two minutes after the call, how he risked his life in the dirty pool to search for their son, and how he tried to revive him.
And they appreciated him more to say goodbye to the young boy in the best costume ever.
Just like how Spiderman couldn’t save Gwen Stacy, not all heroes can save everyone after all.
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