‘God led me there,’ says the UPS driver.
After a UPS driver saved a great-grandmother’s life, the two struck up a friendship that is transcending the bounds of age and circumstance.
UPS driver Raheem Cooper, 30, may never have met Marie Coble, 78, were it not for a fateful drive he took on Aug. 12. Around 2 p.m. that day, Cooper was taking a shortcut along a particular street on his way to his next delivery. He says it was God who put him there.
“It was just God, honestly,” Cooper told The Epoch Times. “He’s got to get all the glory for that. … I was just taking a shortcut, and something just told me to go on her street.”
The Good Deed
While driving that day, Cooper looked to his left and noticed a grocery bag on the ground. The next moment, he saw a woman passed out behind her car.
It was Coble.
“She was lying on her stomach, and the right side of her face was lying on the pavement,” Cooper said, adding that it was extremely hot that day.
He parked and ran over to Coble, quickly noticing that she was bleeding heavily even though her eyes were still open. “She was conscious, but she wasn’t able to talk. And she wasn’t able to get up,” he said.
Cooper called 911 from his phone. While communicating with the dispatcher, he put bags under Coble’s body to protect her from the hot pavement. He also began rubbing her with cold water to keep her cool.
During this time, a young woman pulled over to help, helping Cooper lift Coble into the backseat of her car.
“I don’t know her name to this day,” Cooper said of the young woman. “But I’m thankful she was there because she was a lot of help.”
When the ambulance arrived, Cooper gave his contact information to the paramedics in case the family had questions about what he saw when he found her.
Talking about the good deed, he said he didn’t dwell on it much because he did what “any decent person would do for somebody.”
Local paramedics shared on Facebook about Cooper’s compassion, and the post went viral. Having been recognized both nationally and locally for his good deed, Cooper credits what happened that day to a higher power.
“I personally feel like God led me there at the right time and right place,” he said. “It wasn’t nothing but God.”
For his kind act, Cooper received a pin and a thank-you letter from the CEO of UPS, Carol B. Tomé. His colleagues celebrated his fine gesture by organizing a special meal at one of their weekly meetings and awarding him an honorary plaque.
‘Our Guardian Angel’
Coble, a Valdosta resident, is a mother of four, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother of eight. Her granddaughter Kayla Cochran calls Cooper her family’s guardian angel who has been their rock during this challenging time.
The day after Coble was hospitalized, Cochran received a call at 4 a.m. describing her grandmother’s situation. Cochran was horrified to hear the news. She made the drive from her home in Folkston to Valdosta to visit Coble in the hospital. There, she found her “very confused and disoriented.”
A few days later, Cochran scheduled a time for her grandmother to be reunited with Cooper. The two met on a Sunday.
The visit was heartwarming. Cooper and Coble got to know each other during the visit, discussing their families and backgrounds. Cooper is from Valdosta, like Coble, but was born in Homerville.
“She was just so thankful,” Cooper said. “We just built a bond from that day on.”
Though Coble was doing well on that initial visit, she was sent back to the intensive care unit around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 21. A few hours later, Cochran was told the physicians had to perform emergency surgery or her grandmother would not survive the night. Her brain was bleeding.
Thankfully, the operation was a success.
“The first visit I went to see her after her surgery, as soon as I walked in the room, she reached up and gave me a hug, and her granddaughter said she hadn’t talked to anybody right up until I came to the hospital,” Cooper said.
She is now recovering well at a rehab facility in Homerville. “She remembers everything now, so she’s doing pretty good,” Cooper said.
Cooper continues visiting Coble at the hospital once or twice a week. He often brings his 8-year-old daughter on the visits.
Cochran said her grandmother had been on the ground for quite a while that fateful day and would have died had Cooper not intervened.
“We’re very blessed that he stopped and helped her, and did what he did, and took the heroic actions that day,” Cochran said, adding that he took it upon himself to stop and help even though he was driving on a timeframe and was following his route.
The loving granddaughter hopes people will continue praying for her grandmother.
Cooper now adores Coble. “She’s my adopted grandma now,” he said.
And Coble and Cochran have certainly welcomed him. “He’s a part of our family now,” her granddaughter affirmed.