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23submissions
Finished
Hey Pandas, What Is One Moment In Your Life That You Will Never Forget?
We all had those moments. Please share yours!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My wife dying in bed next to me a few months ago. I don't think it will ever leave me.
She started coughing - later realised this was an auto response from the body after the heart had stopped, causing fluid in the lungs - and didn't stop for about 30 seconds. Then when she did her eyes stayed open and she wasn't breathing.
Unlocked front door, called ambulance, got her on the floor, did all the CPR (I'm trained in it) medics arrive within minutes, but there was nothing to be done. Defib announced 'no shock necessary' which I know means there is no heart activity at all.
She had been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy some years ago, probably had it from birth. It's not unusual with that for the heart to simply stop with no warning. And once it's stopped it's stopped completely.
Final score:
13points
RELATED:
#2
I worked an ambulance some years ago and had a call where four 20 somethings went into a ravine in their car. When we arrived, the firemen were sending one up that they thought was a corpse. we noticed she was breathing so we did our thing. One year later after a dozen surgeries and months of rehab I met her and her mother at a Starbucks. some years later she told me that she had a baby. The beat goes on...
Final score:
9points
#3
The moment I received a call while at work from a the Hospital. A friend of mine had attempted to unalive himself, by jumping off a building. I immediately left work and went straight to the hospital. Now you might ask why they called me and not his family. Well turns out they did call his mother first, but she lived in another state so it would have been like a 9 - 12 hour drive, or a 1 hour flight, which she could not afford. They also called his sister, but she ignored the multiple calls and voicemail they left. I was his first, and ONLY visitor for a full week before his mother finally showed up. He survived and was lucky that he is still able to walk.
Final score:
7points
KrazyChiMama 3 months ago
Hopefully the person was able to get all the help needed not just the physical aspect.
MalayDragon (Submission author) 3 months ago
He did get some help, he's still around, has his good and bad days but still alive.
Load More Replies...
MalayDragon (Submission author) 3 months ago
Thank you, I appreciate this.
Load More Replies... #4
Seems we mostly remember bad things that happened to us. I’m going with my best happy memory. Mine is the day my husband proposed to me. We’ve known each other since we were twelve and we got married at age 24. He has two beautiful children from his previous relationship, and this February our daughter gave birth to our first grandchild, Alonzo Lamar. I feel so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing family!
Final score:
7points
#5
My identical twin sister passing away in my arms from cancer. I miss you with all my heart, sis.
Final score:
7points
#6
Most of the things I remember most vividly are mistakes I made that still cause me to cringe every time they come around to the front of my consciousness.
Final score:
6points
#7
Lets add a lighter note. I took a roadtrip at 18 where we drove in an old Ford station wagon, listening to Goethes Erben while around the world was dark and snowed in. We had the best mongolian buffet somewhere near Landshut and ended at a nightclub at the austrian border that hosted goth night, but when the lights came on at 3 it was palm murals, turcoise and beach feeling😆. we drove home and at 8 I sat in my first lesson at school.it was soooo surreal
Final score:
6points
Birgit M 3 months ago
That sounds really cool! ...and I wouldn't be surprised if Oswald Henke himself made this happen somehow. =)
sturmwesen (Submission author) 3 months ago
I wouldn't be surprised. I can't listen to "Tage des Wassers" without being thrown back in time
Load More Replies... #8
3 years old and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was hit by a logging truck. Nothing happened to me except gravel rash on my left arm up to my elbow.
I even remember what I was wearing and where I was living at the time.
I also think of that poor man that drove that truck and how his heart must have stopped.
Final score:
6points
#9
Back in 1997, the ambulance service I worked decided to start fundraising to get an air ambulance. I had just qualified as a paramedic and realised how impactful an air ambulance service could be, especially for the rural parts of the county that were over an hour by land away from the nearest hospital - not something that you really want in a life-threatening situation. I got involved in fundraising, and made such an impact that when they brought the helicopter they were planning to use to do a tour of the area I was offered a flight in it. I can still remember the noise and the smell of that old Bolkow BO105 and how excited I was to get a flight in it, even if it was only for 10 minutes. That made my mind up that I wanted to work on the air ambulance, and a few years later in 2001 I was successful in getting accepted as an air ambulance paramedic until I moved services in 2004. Best few years of my career!
Final score:
6points
#10
I have another one, much more positive.
When out for a walk around my apartment building I found a briefcase with strewn papers and photos. So I gathered them. The next morning I looked though them to find the owner. There was a certified check for a caterer.
So I called the caterer and asked them to reach out to the person on the check to come pick it up. The woman was so happy that it had been found. Apparently, the caterer would not provide without payment and they could not come up with supplementary funds.
I am grateful that the wedding went off ok with the caterer being paid.
It is one in a lifetime moment.
Final score:
6points
#11
The sound my cousin made when her child's S.Ab*ser got off scott free. She held it together until the courtroom cleared out. That will haunt me forever. Thankfully her child wasn't in the building.
Final score:
4points
#12
When I was 8 years old I got prescription glasses. It literally changed the way I see the world. It was the first time I saw individual leaves on a tree! I was no longer bumping my shoulder on door jambs. Mentally I felt safer because I could actually see what was going on. Thank you 4th grade teacher for noticing me squinting to read the blackboard.
Final score:
4points
Rick Murray 3 months ago
I was 12. The big scary PE teacher dragged me to Matron because he didn't think I had the balls to reply to his "RUN TO THE BOLLARD AND BACK" (he had no indoor voice) with "What bollard?". Turns out I'm quite myopic and just never knew because, well, nobody ever asked me a question like "is the world fuzzy if it's more than about a metre away?". I just thought that was how people saw. So they took me to the optician and I got those awful black plastic NHS glasses and... spent a *LOT* of time noticing, as you said, leaves. The cracks in the masonry. The roof tiles that were uneven. That weird ledge that ran around the corridors just below ceiling height (and was also uneven, that irrationally bothered me). And licence plates. So many number combinations that my stupid brain wanted to try to find a pattern to.
Auntriarch 2 months ago (edited)
I was 9. I had just changed schools and the teacher told my mother I was either naughty or blind (rude bìtch). My mother took me straight to the opticians and I could see two lines with one eye and the big A at the top with the other. Yes that would be why I never wrote anything down from blackboard until the end of the lesson when I could walk up close enough to read it. Everyone was afraid I would be embarrassed to wear the glasses: are you mad - I can see!!
Load More Replies... #13
In the early 2000s, I was away from home, working for two weeks in our offices in London. One day, I stayed alone late working — it was around 7:30 — when I felt someone come in. I thought it was just the cleaning guy, but I only realized it wasn’t when he was suddenly right next to me: a man in a hoodie covering his face, holding a big kitchen knife. He said, “Don’t scream, and don’t look at me… I’m not gonna hurt you, luv.” I honestly thought it was the end.
He tied me up with computer cables and took me to the office kitchen. Thank God, they only wanted to steal the equipment and left without hurting me. More than the fear of dying right there, what really struck me was the sadness and loneliness of thinking my life might end that way — in a country that wasn’t mine, far from the people I loved.
And I’ll never forget the inspector who interviewed me the next morning. His name was Inspector McGyver, and he had green eyes that matched exactly with the tie he was wearing.
Final score:
3points
#14
I had two ferrets, one was dying from age and we knew, we thought she would die the next day but she didn't.. at first I thought that..
my mom and dad were in the car with my sister which is unusual because my mom worked late..
then I hear the words "she died when you were at school.."
..
I cried typing this btw lol
but anyways so basically while I was having a good day at school, they checked on her and she was dead,..
Final score:
2points
#15
A moment I’ll never forget is one where everything seemed to pause and etch itself into memory — the kind of experience that shifts how you see the world. For some, it’s a personal milestone like graduating, hearing “I love you” for the first time, or holding a newborn. For others, it’s an unexpected moment: an act of kindness from a stranger, a near miss that made them value life more, or a breathtaking scene in nature that felt almost unreal. These moments stand out not because they’re perfect, but because they change us, stay vivid in our minds, and remind us what truly matters.
Final score:
2points
#16
Seeing my mom in a respite centre for the very last time. She was dying of cancer, but she refused to allow me to visit as she didn't want me to see her in such a state. She was getting a bit odd to talk to, but I managed to get her to agree to let me visit on Wednesday. I used to be a Care Assistant in nursing homes, so my eyes went straight to the mouth swabs and her hair brushed back in a way that she would never ever have done. I knew what was up. But the strangest thing was... she was not there. It was a mom shaped body, just about, but there was no mom inside it. She had already gone.
And on Friday evening, the body finally went as well.
I regret not saying goodbye, and I regret not spending more time with her towards the end, but... I guess she didn't want me to worry or something. Spent so much effort in pretending that everything was okay, no big deal, and I went along with it because I knew it would upset her otherwise. But most of all, I never got to tell her that I am really glad, and happy, that *she* was my mom.
She knew, but it's like "I love you". Doesn't matter how much they know, sometimes you just gotta say it again anyway.
Final score:
2points
#17
The day my son was born. I loved him from the first second. I cried. When he was 1 year and 10 months old, I divorced from his mother. She was no good. Since then, it's the 2 of us. He is 17 now. Now I have some time to myself.
Final score:
2points
#18
Sad one: the eyes of my little dog saying it was ok, she had enough. Tootsie, the Toots, you’re missed immensely
Happy one: the afternoon I spent digging in an archeological site. Found ceramic from 4000 years ago. Incredible. Thanks a million to my friend Igor and Cristina and all the crew.
Final score:
1point
#19
The realization of a lifelong dream to visit Ireland. I'm from the US and the moment I stepped out of Dublin Airport and hailed a taxi...I couldn't stop grinning the whole ride. I made it. I was in IRELAND. Poor cabbie probably thought I was crazy.
Final score:
1point
#20
Spending a week in Death Valley on a geology class field trip to get one more credit before I transferred schools and didn't want to have to take another science class.
It was amazing. We took a van and drove all up and down the valley. Park department gave us a private tour of Scotty's Castle. When the tent blew down, I slept on the picnic table. Manley Beacon and Devil's Golf Course we super cool. So was Badwater and the view of Telescope Peak. I have a lot of great photos.
Plus, driving down from Oregon we stopped at Mono Lake. Incredible sunrise.
Final score:
1point
#21
Asking my (male) partner to marry me. We were staying in agrotty, run down hotel and it was a true spur of the meoment thing. John admited that he has been trying to work out a good time to ask me and he said yes without even thinking about it. We were together for over thirty years before John died of a heart attack.
Final score:
1point
#22
The time I mooned the congregation of a church. I had to go to the restroom which was through a door that opened to the altar and congregation. It was a small church. Anyway, I got up to go during the sermon, went in and locked the door. I was wearing a voluminous maxi skirt and had the back of it over my head when a lady walked through the door and stood there staring. She neglected to close the door to the congregation so everyone saw the goods so to speak. I couldn’t go back out there, so I went outside to wait for the service to be over to get my purse. I thought I was in the clear when people came out and didn’t say anything until the priest came out and said “didn’t you know the lock on the door was broken?” Everyone started laughing then.
Final score:
1point
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