10 years ago a hero changed my life, but I did not know it

10 years ago a hero changed my life, but I did not know it.

In the summer of 2000 a Swedish girl that I did not know decided to go the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Several of her favourite bands were booked for the festival, The Cure, Live, Kent and her all time favourites; Pearl Jam. Even though she had lived and worked as a nanny in Boston a few years earlier and was living in Seattle at the time she had never had the opportunity to attend one of their shows. But in the summer 2000 she finally had both the money and the time to do so. She flew back to Sweden from Seattle and together with her younger sister and some friends they travelled by train down to Denmark and Roskilde. The first day was great and the second they she finally got to see them. They went to the venue that Pearl Jam was performing at early so they could stand in the front row. But the joyful atmosphere started to disappear more or less the minute that the band started to play because she could feel the pressure of thousands of peoples pushing her forward and that she had last control over her own body. The air started to disappear from her lungs and the space between her and the security fence were all gone.

She could see how other people were help over the fence, her sister was pushed over and she tried to give a hand, but she could not. And she could not move her self. But there was a guy standing behind her. Apparently he was quite tall and big and he did all he could to give here some space and room to breath. The security guards did not see her when she was standing there, but he made shore that they became aware of her distress and helped her to get over the fence. When the guards and the paramedics were taking her away from the chaos she could see that Eddie Vedder was crying on stage. She was one of the last girls that got over. And the guy who helped her did not. Nine people died that day.

Some years later she saw them again in Seattle at the two concerts that was rumoured to be the last ones. She cried all through both shows as the band talked about the tragedy. But it helped; it felt like a long group therapy session and her new fear and ill feeling about large crowds of people almost disappeared.

Then I met her, we feel in love, moved in together and got married. In 2007 Pearl Jam returned to Denmark and since we only live an hour away from Copenhagen and both are Pearl Jam fans we went to the show. It was emotional since Eddie Vedder was talking a lot about Roskilde and some family members to the guy’s that died were at the concert. When they played “Love Boat Captain” I stood behind my wife and leaned forward to hug her so I could put my hand on top off her belly. Because inside her our daughter was growing. I felt the tears in my eyes and I could see that my wife was crying, as most of the audience did, and I thought about that man standing behind my wife in Roskilde. How he tried to help her breath. How he protected her. How he, maybe, saved my love. Saved my future child. Changed my life...

My daughter is sitting next to my right now when I am writing this and I wish that she and I could talk to you and say thank you. I hope that you were not one of the nine that were lost. I seldom call people heroes, but if I have to choose one. I choose you.