[Serious] Survivors of plane crashes, boat sinks or something catastrophic of this magnitude, what's your story?

When I was young, maybe five or six, my family was almost killed by one of it neighbors. I was told this story when I was much older but remember bits and pieces myself.

I remember my mom rushing into the bedroom I shared with my younger sister (sis is two years younger than me) in the dead of night. Mom told us to stay quiet, she shut our door and told me to on my shoes. I remember thinking it was weird to be awake so late but I was a kid so I just did what I was told. Mom got us dressed with coats over our nightgowns, picked up my sister and grabbed my hand. We went running down the sidewalk from our apartment to the other side of the complex where my cousins lived. I kept asking questions and being told so shush. Mom banged on the door and they let us in. I didn’t stay awake much longer, because it was after midnight and I was a tired little kid but I did think it was weird that we were there so late.

In the morning, we went home and the huge patio door from our living room was completely shattered into the house. I do remember thinking that whoever did it would get in a lot of trouble because Mom did not like us playing near that door. Mom cleaned up the glass and we moved out the next day. It turns out there was a man living in the apartment above us was a schizophrenic. Our patio was right beneath his balcony and he would listen to us all day. He’d gone off his medication and swore that he’d heard my Mom telling us (my sis and I) that we were planning on killing him. He told the police that he’d seen us on Oprah, sharing the plan with her and that her studio audience thought it was a good idea and were staying in our house to help us with his murder. He broke into our apartment with a two foot machete, planning to cut us all up before we could kill him first.

My mom heard him break the patio door, rushed into our bedroom and when she heard him coming upstairs and go into her room, she grabbed us and ran downstairs and to safety. I still can’t believe she was brave enough to do it. I don’t know if I could’ve.

TL:DR my family was almost hacked to death when I was a kid by a man that thought he’d seen us on Oprah.

/r/AskReddit Thread