Click Became the Loudest Sound
By Chief Danny Watson, City of Darlington Chief of Police
They say that silence has no sound but if you really think about it, I guess it depends upon what kind of silence you are talking about. In our noisy world there is no silence. Even if you go to the middle of the woods you will hear something. The sounds of insects, or the stirring of the breeze as it disturbs the leaves rushing through the branches- this is not silence at all. If you think about silence in the terms of someone refusing or being unable to speak, I guess that is a form of silence. What about the silence that we impose upon ourselves? Do people hear that? A bad decision that leads to permanent silence, doesn’t that scream to the loudest decibel? Is it one that hurts your ears and tears your heart to shreds.
A mother sits in a plain white room with a single chair and a single window to look out upon the outside world. She doesn’t turn toward the window to look at the sky or the world outside, because her whole world lay upon a bed in this small room. The silence in the room is deafening. The mother reflects upon what the future will bring as she sits there not making a single sound. She knows that she will never hear the applause of hundreds of parents as they see her daughter graduate from college. She will not hear the sudden gasp of the gathered crowd as the bride steps into the church to be walked down the aisle. She will not hear the pitter-patter of little feet as they run down the hallway on a visit to grandma’s house. The worst thing of all is that she will never hear a word spoken again by her dear sweet daughter. What she would give to have her say just one more time, “Mom I love you.” The only thing echoing in her mind is the last words she said, “I will be right back, Mom, see you soon”.
Someone else slowly shuffles into the plain white room. It is a man with a kindly face and bright warm eyes. He moves to stand beside her chair and his voice filled with compassion softly utters the words, “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but, it’s time to let go.”
The beeping of the machines and the sounds of the pumps breathing for her daughter become strikingly loud. She stands over the most beautiful and most perfect creation she has ever made in all of her life. Gazing upon her she does not see the damage inflicted to her body from the car collision, only the lovely child who left home just a couple of days before saying, “I will be right back, Mom, see you soon.”
Slowly the doctor begins the process of shutting down the many machines that are maintaining the young girl’s life. Click, the first machine is turned off and it hisses to a stop. Click, the second machine is turned off and the beeping suddenly ceases. Click, the final machine stops and the pumps ever so slowly grind to a stop. The repetitive sound of click, click and click reverberates through the mother’s ears. It echoes loudly and with every click the volume increases. The sound of her daughter’s final breath is drowned out by the sound of a loud click, click and click. To that mother on that day that clicking sound has suddenly become the loneliest sound on earth. If her daughter had only clicked that seatbelt, she might be here today.
This is in memory of a young teenage girl who is in a coma somewhere in a nameless hospital that I read about today. The agony that her mother must feel moved my heart to write this in hopes that the person in agony wouldn’t become one of you.
Chief Danny Watson MPA FBI NA # 228, Chief of Police for City of Darlington, has been on the Darlington Police Department since 1994 and Chief since 2011.
The News & Press will be sharing updates and opinions from Chief Watson on a regular basis; you can also keep up with the department on their Facebook page: Darlington Police Department.