Inspiration by Tunde Adebo
I once read about a man who was very hard working and energetic and was one of the best workers in the railroad yard. One major problem of this man is that he was very pessimistic, and everybody around knew him for this. He was always in fear that something bad would happen to him.
One day, all the workers were told to close early so as to be able the attend the birthday party of their boss.
All the workers left, but somehow this man accidentally locked himself in a refrigerated boxcar that had been brought into the yard for maintenance. The boxcar was empty and not connected to any of the trains.
When he realized that he has been locked inside a refrigerated boxcar, he panicked. He began to beating on the doors so hard that his arms and fists became bloody. He cried and screamed, but his coworkers had already gone home to get ready for the party. Nobody could hear Nick's desperate call for help. He cried and cried until he lost his voice.
Aware that he was in a refrigerating boxcar, he guessed that the temperature in the unit was well below freezing point. He feared the worst and thought, What am I going to do? If I don't get out of here, I am going to freeze to death. There is no way I can be there all night.
The more he thought about his circumstances, the colder he became. With the door shut tightly, and no apparent way of escape, he sat down to await his inevitable death by freezing or suffocation, whichever came first.
To pass the time, he decided to chronicle his demise. He found a pen in his shirt pocket and noticed an old piece of cardboard in the corner of the car. Shivering uncontrollably, he scribbled a message to his family. He wrote: " Getting so cold. Body numb. If I don't get out soon, these will probably be my last word."
And they were.
The next morning, when the crew came to work, they opened the boxcar and found his body crumpled over in the corner. When the autopsy was completed, it revealed that this man has indeed frozen to death.
The funny aspect of the story was that the investigators discovered that the refrigerator unit of the in which he has been trapped was not even on! In fact, it had been out of order for some time and was not functioning at the time of the man's death. The temperature in the car that night he froze to death was 29oC. Nick froze to death in slightly less than normal room temperature because he believed that he was in a freezing boxcar. He expected to die! He said to himself that he had no chance. He expected the worst. He saw himself as doomed with no way out. He lost the battle in his mind.
