WHEN Becky Sharp saw an out-of-control car veering toward her, she gathered her wits in a split second and pushed her baby girl’s stroller out of harm’s way.
Sadly, 36-year-old Becky was then “projected into the air about the size of a cricket pitch, thrown like a rag doll” and fell face down, struggling to breathe.
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Becky Sharp, 36, shows how a mother’s love can be superhuman by pushing her baby daughter’s pram out of harm’s way with split-second clarityCredit: Bournemouth News
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According to Becky’s husband Dan, the couple’s three daughters have suffered ‘pain and confusion’ due to their mother’s absenceCredit: Bournemouth
She suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and several fractures, and spent eight months in a coma, missing out on the lives of her three daughters who, according to Becky’s husband, Dan, suffered “pain and confusion” due to their mother’s absence.
This week, the driver, Dale Clark, a 38-year-old scaffolder from New Milton, Hants, who told police he had consumed £210 worth of vodka and cocaine two days before the crash, was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drink driving and failing to stop after an accident.
Becky, who was in court, is still in a wheelchair due to painful complications from a broken leg.
He also suffers from cognitive and memory problems and fatigue.
READ MORE BY JANE MOORE
Clark’s sentence seems unduly lenient given the impact his poor life choices have had on Becky and her young family.
But that’s not what I want to focus on today.
We celebrate the superhuman strength of mother’s love.
In Becky’s case, it was the psychological strength of being able to put her child’s well-being above her own, with a lightning-quick reaction when disaster was headed her way.
For others, it’s a physical power you don’t know you have until you need it.
Hysterical power
In 1982, a middle-aged mother named Angela Cavallo watched her teenage son tinker with her ’64 Chevy Impala. in front of their house in Georgia, USA, when it fell on him.
Without thinking, she mustered the strength to lift him four inches off the ground so they could drag him to safety.
Another mother smashed a solid door with her shoulder when her child was trapped in the room.
Experts call this “hysterical power,” and it’s the power that can come from the rush of adrenaline and stress when you’re faced with an emergency.
Men get it, too, of course, but when it’s shown by women — who are generally considered the physically weaker sex — it’s more unusual and often has to do with protecting their children.
It is a difficult phenomenon for experts to pin down because putting people in emergency situations to test their hysterical strength would be unethical.
But stories like Angela’s strength and Becky’s lightning-quick reaction remind us that it’s a very real thing.
And let’s be honest, for many women a traumatic birth is an act of “hysterical strength” in itself.
Texan Sofia (43), who kicked down her toddler’s door, tells the American website romper.com: “I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life with my body. I competed in triathlons. I went skydiving. I had two car accidents.
“But nothing was as exhausting or exhausting as giving birth.
“Not even that door-smashing situation.”
And Becky, who doesn’t remember the accident, gave birth three times and almost lost her life trying to protect one of her children.
It doesn’t get any stronger than that.
IT’S ALL A BRIT OF A MESS
BRITNEY SPEARS has the right to tell her life story however she wants.
But in all the warts and all the autobiographies there are always significant others out of the way that they find theirs private moments exposed by default.
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Revealing everything in the autobiography of warts and all can also violate the privacy of others Credit: Getty
And so we learn that Britney got pregnant at 19 and had a break because, as she says, her then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake “didn’t want to be a father” at the time.
Justin, now married to actress Jessica Biel, has kept quiet until now, but a quick look at his Instagram shows he’s now a very proud dad to sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3.
No doubt, neither has internet access yet, but the school playground is another matter.
Either way, at some point their dad might find himself in a situation where he has to explain an embarrassing truth that he hoped would remain a secret forever.
FORMER England rugby star James Haskell jokes that because wife Chloe didn’t take his surname, his ego is often bruised in restaurants when he’s greeted with: “Hello Mr Madeley – welcome back.”
One solution James: Reserve a table yourself.
MITE AWFUL
IF someone talks about nits, I always start scratching my head.
And now that a report of a bed bug infestation is in the news, I’m convinced an army of them has taken up residence in my mattress, and I vacuumed it twice last week.
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Jane tells how she vacuumed her mattress twice with a report of a bed bug infestation in the news Credit: Alamy
I may resort to the old military trick of putting the legs of the bed in small petrol cans to prevent the little pests from climbing up.
Although today, an ex-serviceman wrote that while serving at RAF Sharjah in Dubai in 1958, the bedbugs outsmarted the petrol trick by coming over the ceiling and swooping down when they felt body heat.
Nurse! I will never sleep again.
What is Mad Rush, Sadiq?
In the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth Or Dare, she was shown angrily berating her management team backstage after a concert.
Reason? The first few rows were stone-faced “industrial” types and she wanted them to be real fans.
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Madonna has long wanted genuine fans to appear at her concerts, not ‘industry’ types Credit: Getty
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So you wonder how she felt when she saw London Mayor Sadiq Khan and his wife Saadia in prime front row Credit: Rex Features
Fast forward 32 years and you can only imagine her mood backstage after one of her concerts at 02 last week.
Because there, in prime position in the front row at the end of the stage, was none other than the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with his wife Saadia.
They could be real fans, of course, but doubtful considering they were spotted leaving “well before half time”.
Although, to be fair, they may have left earlier to avoid the traffic jams in the capital. . . primarily caused by the various stupid road initiatives launched by Sadiq Khan.
CELEBRITY chef Rick Stein’s seafood restaurants in Cornwall lost more than £1.2m last year.
He says that his business almost failed, and the reason for this is the high prices of energy and fish and the lower number of customers after Covid.
Could it also be that, after years of anti-tourism rhetoric from some locals – many of whom were not born there – once frequent visitors have now moved to a county where they actually feel welcome?
It seems that even Sir David Attenborough’s unparalleled storytelling skills could not prevent the BBC from quietly shelving wildlife series Dynasties, about animals fighting to protect themselves from rivals.
Apparently it will continue in some form under a different name.
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Sir David Attenborough’s BBC show continues under a different name – perhaps as ‘Dynasties’ recalled Alexis Colby and Cristal Carrington’s feudCredit: BBC
In other words, the problem wasn’t Sir David or the excellent recording.
It was a poor title that may have turned off potential viewers for fear of seeing Alexis Colby and Cristal Carrington fight over a pair of powerful earrings.
MOLLY LEGACY IN DANGER
HOW many times have you heard a politician talk about drastic and promising changes that seem like common sense moves that should have been made years ago?
Yet time and time again, they act as bystanders simply watching the coming crisis, when they should be the ones with the power to do something about it.
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Provisions relaxing stricter and more protective standards for online platforms threaten the legacy of tragic Molly RussellCredit: PA
Today Tory Nadine Dorries – the former secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport – revealed her predecessor Oliver Dowden gave her “one piece of advice”.
“Kick the online safety bill into the grass and leave it there.” I pray?
This, don’t forget, is a law that aims to set stricter and more protective standards for online platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
Among her advocates is the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 and, according to the coroner, “died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.”
Yet Ms Dorries, who, to her credit, pushed ahead with the bill while still in the job, fears the same intense lobbying from powerful tech companies that led to her predecessor’s warnings is now being applied again.
First, the provision regulating “legal but harmful” online material has been removed from the Online Safety Draft.
And now leading academics have warned that if some elements of the digital markets law are watered down, it could benefit big tech.
Hmmm.
The Tories are still reeling after losing two by-elections last week, one of the biggest factors being the “what’s the point, nothing changes?” voter. apathy.
No wonder, when countless politicians make promises to the world and then deliver an atlas after being groomed by lobbyists, party civil servants and naïve aides who get all their opinions from Twitter, or whatever it’s called these days.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education