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Memphis Ain't Too Bad...
Two-and-a-half years ago, Heather Fox was lying in the street at Hollywood and Sam Cooper Boulevard, blood spilling onto the pavement, her life about to end at age 34.
Then an 18-year-old stranger, Ashley Sanders, kneeled over and pushed down hard on the bullet wound, stemming the flow of blood. "She kept telling me, 'You are going to be all right. The ambulance is coming,'" Fox said. On Thursday night, Fox was at Bellevue Baptist Church to see Sanders, now her friend, graduate with a degree in pharmacy technology, on the path to a new life. "This has been an inspiration ... for friends and random people," Fox said. "It has affected me and my family, Ashley and her family, and the Memphis community." After the shooting, Sanders graduated from high school, and with the help of Fox, entered Tennessee Technology Center. "I made a wonderful friend," said Sanders, as she walked in her black gown and mortarboard into the church. "It means the world, a better life for my children, accomplishing a long-term goal," said Sanders, who has two children. Fox, excited for her friend, pushed a stroller with her 6-month-old daughter around Bellevue. On March 12, 2007, Fox was on her way to her weekly Bible class, when she gave a woman with a baby a ride. Before they had gotten very far, the woman, Shani Butler, pulled a gun out of the infant's diaper bag and ordered Fox to find an ATM machine. Fox tried to run when she stopped at a red light, but Butler fired, striking Fox in the back. Butler sped off in Fox's 2002 Jaguar. Police caught up to her in the stolen car minutes after the shooting. Butler was sentenced last March in federal court and is serving a 22-year prison term. Sanders heard the screams and ran to aid the victim. "I was going cold," Fox said. "I felt my legs to make sure I wasn't paralyzed." The bullet ruptured a vein near her heart. Doctors at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis told her she would have died without Sander's help. Once out of the hospital, Fox went to visit her guardian angel to thank her. The two became friends, and, over time, Fox got a chance to repay the favor. Sanders, a teen with few prospects, asked for advice on getting a summer job. So, Fox went to work, e-mailing her friends for help on setting up a $6,000 educational trust fund for Sanders. Then the school gave Sanders a full scholarship after an official saw her on television. Already, she has a couple of good job possibilities. "I have a career now," Sanders said. "I would do it over again, even if I didn't get the scholarship."
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