Cole and Cynthia Ellis
Since I began my career in journalism nearly 18 years ago, I’ve been part of various publications where I wrote a column. Since I started I have shared parts of my personal life, many stories which consist of tales about my son.
I’ve written everything from him asking about when he would get his first kiss to his first date, entering the Marine Corps to getting married. Now he is about to become a father (less than a month to go), but of all the remarkable things I’ve felt he’s done, nothing compares to what he did on Jan. 7.
That Monday morning as my son was headed to the Presidio at Monterey, the base where he is stationed at the Defense Language Institute, he came across a crash on Pacific Coast Highway 1 in the Carmel Highlands area.
Normally, when there is a crash you would leave the injured alone until rescue crews arrive. This was no ordinary crash, though — the car was on fire and a young woman was trapped inside.
Cole, along with another man, pulled the woman from the vehicle prior to the arrival of rescue crews. My daughter-in-law, Carissa, let me know what happened and told me the other person was a physician at Community Hospital in Monterey Peninsula.
The woman was taken to a hospital in Salinas, and Cole sent Carissa to check on her. Of course, Carissa took flowers and visited the woman, along with her husband. The woman told Carissa she was on her way to work when the crash took place. She also said her husband usually drives her, and her 1-year-old son rides along.
As a journalist, I did some homework. I finally found a picture of the wreck online. The CBS-affiliated TV station (KION) in Monterey ran a story after the Carmel Highlands Fire Protection District/CALFIRE posted it on its Facebook page, thanking the two good Samaritans and stating, “They were there prior to any rescue crews and were able to free the driver of the vehicle that caught fire. Without their actions, the injuries could have been much worse.”
I commented on both the TV station and fire district posts that my son was one of the two good Samaritans. The injured woman commented back to me. She said she is very lucky to be alive. She has two fractured ribs and a lower backbone that “ripped” — other than that she is fine. She told me she “will forever be thankful” for what Cole did.
The battalion chief of the fire district, George Nunez Jr., also got in touch with me because he wanted to get Cole’s contact information. He posted on my comment, “Your son is someone to be extremely proud of. He stepped in when it counted and gave a complete stranger a second chance.”
I am proud and thankful for what Cole did. Because of him the woman they saved gets to go home to her husband and child. She gets to be with her family. Not everyone would be able or do what he did.
Cole is humbled about what he did. He downplayed his actions. Of course, he’s a sergeant in the Marines, which causes him to be stoic at times. However, as his mother I’m not as humble about his actions. All parents love to brag about their children— and when they save a life, it gives us even more of a reason.