"Hey, y'all, watch this!"

Ya think?

 

Actually, the story is a lot sadder than "you might be a redneck if..."

Florence woman recalls look in boyfriend's eyes as he fell to his death from rocky bluff
Posted by Associated Press September 15, 2009 11:25 AM

FLORENCE -- A Florence woman said she nearly grabbed her boyfriend's hand as he slipped on a bluff in Tennessee and fell some 70 feet to his death.

"The hardest thing was seeing his eyes as he fell," Megan Dennis said. "I loved him so much and I didn't get to tell him that."


Dennis, 29, said she and her boyfriend, Raymond Douglas "Doug" Lawson, 26, of Florence, had gone to what is known as "Insurance Bluff" in western Lawrence County, Tenn., on Saturday night after visiting the grave of Lawson's brother.

Shortly after midnight, they were sitting on the bluff, dangling their feet over the edge when Dennis threw a rock and asked how far down it was.

"Doug said about 200 feet," she told the TimesDaily newspaper of Florence in a story Tuesday. "He said we were above the tops of the trees. I told him that was scary and I got up to leave."

But when Lawson got up and turned around, she said, he slipped and fell off the bluff backward. She said he reached for her but she missed his hand by just inches when she tried to grab it.

Dennis said she screamed out for him, but didn't get an answer.

"I hollered that I would go get help," she said. "I turned around, took three steps and fell 15 feet off the opposite side of the bluff. It was dark. I had never been out there before, and I missed the trail."

Dennis said she grabbed a tree and pulled herself back up.

"I finally got to the car and I had an old newspaper in it and I tore it into pieces and used it to line the trail so I would know how to get back up to Doug," she said. "I didn't want to leave him, but I knew I had to go get help. I told (Doug) I loved him and I'd be right back."

She said she had to drive about 20 minutes before getting a cell phone signal, and about that time two men in a truck came up and gave the emergency workers directions.

"When they got there, they still had to follow me back up to the area where I had left the newspaper trail," she said.

Lawrence County Chief Deputy Terry Beecham said rescue workers rappelled down the bluff to retrieve the body, which was sent to the state forensic lab for an autopsy.

The death remains under investigation.

 

Yes, it's tragic. But, merely how the event itself evolved, it just seemed to remind me of so many similar stories.

 

If he'd have caught her hand, he'd have pulled her down...

 

I really hope she comes to understand this and doesn't place any blame on herself.

 

In Germany, it's the classic "Look Hans, No Ma."

 

Karma fail for not linking the 70s original.

 

Two of the best friends I've ever had died from falls.

In high school one died when the rope broke while he was trying to rappel down a grain silo — another friend grabbed the rope and tried to save him, but it slipped through his fingers, leaving him with burn scars that are still there to this day.

Another friend fell to his death while rock climbing near Aspen about 15 years ago.

 

Nobody ever dies from a fall.

It's that sudden stop when you get to the bottom.

 

I am soooooooo going to hell for laughing at that. Well, not just that ...