MY PERSONAL OPINION!
DEVON EPPS WAS A "REAL" MAN, DEVON EPPS WAS A HERO!
Devon Epps was a hero...let me repeat...7 year old Devon Epps WAS A HERO!
In his short life Devon did what some grown men have never done, what firemen are trained to do, what love of our fellow man sometimes makes us dare all to do. He braved death and ran through fire, he risked his life to save someone. He risked his life to save the person he loved the most, he faced flame and smoke to save his mother.
On May 1st, 2007 his mettle was tested. He woke to a fire lit room, choking on smoke, a door too hot to touch, and while many children have hidden in closets, or under beds in their justifiable terror at such a sight, Devon reacted differently. His tiny hand scalds to touch that door, he looks around frantically for some way to open his door. Maybe it was a piece of his pajamas, maybe a pair of pants, as of yet, unburned, but he manages to open his door.
Does he run for the front door to flee in fright? Does he run screaming for a neighbor?
No.
He knows that someone he loves may be trapped if he does, he chokes on the smoke as he runs to his mother's room.
Maybe he's sobbing, maybe he's screaming, it doesn't matter, because whatever fear he had or was expressing he was still rushing to save his mother. That takes courage. THAT IS LOVE.
He shakes her. He calls to her. He "wakes" her. And they both leave together.
Later, hospitalized for smoke inhalation he tells his father the story. Not as bragging, but because he needs to tell someone about something that frightened him. He told his grandfather who probably didn't think about the depth of heroism it took to do what Devon did because his grandpa didn't need to think about it. It was what he expected from a boy like Devon, he took it as a given that his grandson was that brave, that steady in the face of death. He was probably proud of Devon, but it was a quiet pride, a nodding "that's my boy" kinda pride. The foreshadowing it represented would only come later.
And the woman he saved? The woman he loved? The woman he risked death for? Did she proudly boast to others about how her son had come to her rescue? Did she say to others, "he's my little hero", "my boy loves me so much he would walk through fire for me", did she weep with pride as any other mother would to have such a REAL MAN in her life?
How many other mothers would love to be able to point to their sons and say "look what my child did for the love of me!"?
Amanda Regan Smith told her family, her friends, and her classmates that SHE had heard him in distress and that SHE had saved his life. SHE TOLD PEOPLE SHE WAS THE REAL HERO. And beyond even that, she implied to others that Devon was to blame for the fire.
It is a tragedy when any child is murdered, it is the ultimate betrayal when it comes at the hand of someone the child trusts, and loves with all their heart.
And as we know there is nothing larger in this world then the love a child's heart can hold.
But when the love has seen an actual measure, when it has been expressed in its ultimate form, that being the willingness to die to save someone they love, when it is seen in all the glory that IS the willingness "to lay down one's life", how much more horrible is it when the person you risked all for would try to take up the mantle of "HERO" as her own?
Imagine then if that same person not only tried to steal your heroism, but then shortly after, could look at your sweet, brave face, and stop that huge, loving, heroic heart?
The murder of a child is horrible, but it, IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, is made 1000 times more criminal, 1000 times more evil, when courage is rewarded by such and when the killer tries to pretend they were the brave one.
DEVON EPPS WAS A "REAL" MAN, DEVON EPPS WAS A HERO!
