Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Spider-Man Shows Up At Funeral, Nobody Thinks It's Weird And Everyone's Touched

Fort Worth Police Officer Damon Cole showed up
at a five-year-old boy's funeral dressed as Spider Man,
and it was probably the classiest thing anyone
could have done in this siuation 
One of the tackiest things you could do is show up a a funeral dressed up as Spider Man.

Except at one recent funeral in Texas, in which somebody did just that - came dressed as Spider Man -- and everyone was touched and honored.

For good reason.  It turned out to have been the classiest thing anyone could have done.

On April 2, Fort Worth, Texas Police Officer Damon Cole was dispatched to search for a five year old boy who suddenly went missing.

Cole searched for the kid, Joshua Garcia in the murky water of a neighbor's neglected backyard pool. Sadly, he found the child's lifeless body at the bottom on the pool, dressed in Spider Man shoes and a Spider Man shirt.

Cole said he wishes he had super powers to save the kid's life, but he couldn't. Nobody could.

"It just broke my heart," Cole told Today. "I have an 8-year-old daughter and I just couldn't imagine something like this. I heard all these stories about how Joshua was just happy and full of life, and this just made it more personal."

Joshua's favorite thing was Spider Man and his family decided to give him a Spider Man funeral. Officer Cole showed up dressed as Spider Man, which I think is as touching a tribute as any for a child who died far, far too young.

Cole has a habit of doing the super hero thing for kids anyway, so the Spider Man thing wasn't entirely new. He is a membef of Heroes, Cops and Kids, a group of Dallas-area offices who dress up as superheroes to cheer up children at various events and venues.

They do this on their own time and their own dime, notes Today.  

Cole might not have had super powers to save the kid's life. But he certainly does have super powers enought to make a sad situation as much less bad as possible.

Television station WLTX, reporting on this said it best: "The actions of this officer prove that it's not the cape or the custome that make the hero, it's the heart. Even a broken one."

Here's a news video of Cole at Joshua's funeral:

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