On the evening of May 22, the biggest concern on the minds of Stephen Jones and Chris Parker was finding a place to sleep.
Both homeless men in Manchester, England, Jones, and Parker often look for warm places to spend his nights and perhaps find donations from passersby, according to the New York Times.
Parker found a spot near the entrance of Manchester Arena where he would sleep for the night and thought it might also be a good place to panhandle. Jones did the same.
And then it was chaos.
A bomb exploded inside the arena, killing more than 20 people and injuring scores more. The blast knocked both men off of their feet, but they quickly gathered themselves and began helping.
“Just because I am homeless doesn’t mean I haven’t got a heart, or I’m not human still,” Jones said. “I’d like to think someone would come and help me if I needed the help.”
Jones then started picking nails out of the faces and hands of children who were harmed in the blast, as well as trying to console those around them.
Parker held a small girl who had lost her legs, wrapping her in a t-shirt and trying to keep her calm.
“I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts, and I said, ‘Where is your mum and daddy?’ She said, ‘My dad is at work, my mum is up there,’” Parker was quoted in the Times as saying.
Parker also comforted an elderly woman in her dying moments.
“She was in her 60s, and she had been with her family. I haven’t stopped crying,” he told the Press Association, according to The Times. “The most shocking part of it is that it was a kids’ concert.”
After people began to hear about Parker’s selflessness and bravery, they quickly set up a GoFundMe page in his name that has raised nearly $40,000. Clearly, the outpouring of support shows how much his actions have been appreciated by family, friends, and those simply reading about what he did.
Parker’s actions may have also helped heal his relationship with his mother, who he hasn’t spoken to in years.
“This is my son and I am desperate to get in touch with him,” she wrote on the fund-raising page. “We have been estranged for a very long time, and I had no idea he was homeless. I am very proud of him, and I think he might need me right now.”
Hopefully, it leads to a reunion, with Parker receiving the love and help he may need from his mother. But the victims of the Manchester Arena attack needed Parker, and in that moment, he was a savior.
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