As moms we make choices every day for our children. We decide to drive hours to the beach or we take a bad way that has traffic and sit for three hours. Whatever the price we adults pay for those choices, it's often our children -- the ones who had no say in the first place -- who have to pay, too.
Usually these decisions are mere annoyances that result in over-tired children who scream and cry the whole way home. But one mom in California paid far too high a price for a bad split-second decision.
Susan Dibene was walking with her 2-year-old daughter when she made the last-second decision to cross the train tracks even after the warning bars had descended and the lights were flashing. The stroller became stuck and Dibene just managed to push her daughter free, but couldn't free herself.
She died when the train hit her.
There are so many sad parts to this story, but the true heartbreak is that Dibene died saving her child. We all know some parents who would have run to save themselves or others who would have been too paralyzed with fear to do anything.
Dibene probably knew she had made a bad decision. But maybe it was past dinnertime. Maybe her toddler was fussy. Maybe she needed a diaper change. There are 10,000 reasons why any of us might have made a similar last-minute bad decision.
It's the reason I've blown through stop signs and red lights. It may have been an oversight, not something I did on purpose, but ultimately the reason is that I was concerned about my children and wanted to get them home as soon as possible.
Even as we recognize that this woman made a less than perfect decision, we must also acknowledge that many of us would have done the same, but few of us would have had the courage she showed at the end.
We all say we would die for our kids. And we all probably believe it. Dibene proved it's true and while I am sure she would love to see her daughter grow up, I am also sure that if she had it to do over again knowing it was either herself or her baby, she would have made the same decision.
Her daughter is very lucky to have a mom like that and maybe someday she will recognize exactly how much her mother truly loved her. My heart goes out to the family.
Do you think this mom is a hero?
Image via s.carlson/Flickr
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Comments 335
Unless crossing the tracks was a life or death issue she shouldn't have made it one. The poor baby has to grow up without a Mom. Noble that she risked her life, yes. But a stupid decison overall nonetheless.
No, I'm sorry, she's an idiot. She risked her life and her child's life and she ended up dying. Trying to race a train is not a "bad decision". It's a stupid, idiotic, moronic decision and there is NO REASON to take that risk. And she didn't die for her child, she barely got her kid off the tracks and didn't manage to make it across herself. If her child ran away and was on the track and she bolted after them and shoved them out of the way, that would be dying for her child.
What she did was put her child's life in danger. It's very sad for the child who will now grow up without a mother.
And you're doing the same thing when you run stop signs and red lights. Whatever you're doing that for better be worth your life - I'm talking like, one of your kids is bleeding to death in the backseat and you're rushing them to the ER, not just because it's past dinner time.
Since there is no mention here of the child having been in mortal danger in need of rushing across train tracks, I'm chalking this up to an idiotic, unecessary, deadly decision. I'm just glad the child survived, because it would have been an exponentially greater tragedy if she had gotten her child killed as well.
What a moron.
There is nothing heroic about being the reason your child is in danger.
So sad to say, that was not an action of a HERO! You make stupid decision like that and everyone has to live with your mistake! Thepoor baby will have no mother and the poor people running the train have to live with the fact they killed someone! STUPID STUPID CHOICE, terrible consequences :(
No. Crossing the tracks when the bars were down was a horrible decision. It doesn't matter if her daughter was acting, if she was in a hurry, etc.....it was a decision that cost her her life and almost cost her daughter her life. This is a sad story :(
I agree with Mama2MonkeyBoys. Completely idiotic and avoidable. There's a reason why those lights go off and the arms come down. While I feel sorry that the child now has to grow up without a mother, the family should just be thankful that she didn't get her child killed as well.
Not to jump on the hater parade, but I agree with the PP's-this was a stupid choice on the part of the mother. Yes, it's good that she had the presense of mind to push her child to safety, but you don't mess with trains-you will always lose that battle. I live near Chicago, and sadly every year we hear stories about people getting hit by both the commuter trains in the suburbs and the El in the city.