My exit from the JWs was painful and drawn out...but is far enough away from me (20 years ago) so as not to be a threat any longer...
compared to some of the previous posted--and I think it took great courage to share some of those stories- my life has been mild.
Three years ago I was in an elevator in a high rise in NYC with 8 other people when the elevator cable broke and the elevator dropped slowly into free fall---the emergency "governor" brakes caught the cab and tilted it in the shaft at a 15 degree list. For 2 hours we all tried to be brave as the cab hung on--we shared life stories. the cab continued to shift and gave us concern that the brakes may not hold. ( It was an old building). As an architect who has designed a few high rises in NYC; I knew that this was not supposed to happen, and that there are safety measures to hold the cab in place until help would arrive. Sharing this info with the others was, to some extent, a reinforcement to myself that this would all end ok....but being in the experience is somewhat different...we all found a way to mask our fear...I could only think to myself that this was it ( what a way to go!)
One of the other guys in the cab was a photo journalist who had just returned from a safari in Africa where the Rwandan military guerillas had kidnapped the expedition and slaughtered half of them and let the other half live-including him-to tell the world. He was in this building to have a photo book published about his safaris. He was very courageous and said " hell, if I could survive that I am not afraid of a NY elevator."
His courage was a support to all of us. Another person in the cab was a woman 8 or 9 months pregnant, she was as scared as the rest of us; and repeatedly kept talking about the impending birth and how she really wanted this child. It was clear to all that her words were more consolation and support to herself about the tenuous situation we were all in...and we all understood, and shared the enthusiasm with her.
I do not recall the detail of the other stories, but the two I noted were the most poignant and reflect the urgency of the moment.
When the Fire Department forced the doors open, the floor of the cab was about 5 feet above the floor and we had to "jump" down, one at a time. Women first, and the last two to leave was me and the photo journalist. He just pushed me out and followed. None of us bothered to look back ( jaded New Yorkers!) we headed for the stairs and walked down to the lobby and back onto the street where the city life did not even skip a beat.
Our lives ( mine and I believe the others) had been altered somewhat by thinking we might drop to our deaths at any moment; and that the control of the situation was beyond our ability to do anything to help ourselves. But after the situation we never looked back--perhaps to subconsciously hide the fact that it ever happend? That we sophisticated New Yorkers ( and I use that term sarcastically) could ever be reduced to such a state of fear and lack of control of our fate. The events of 9/11 taught us another lesson...(but that is another story).
I saw the photo journalist on a TV special ,3 weeks later where he described his African kidnapping...he did not mention the elevator episode in NYC.
Frank