On Monday night, Chris Parker went down to Manchester Arena to beg for money. The 33-year-old man had been homeless for about a year and he knew that asking for spare change outside of the arena would be easy after that night's Ariana Grande concert got out. Then the explosion happened.
As concertgoers got up to leave Manchester Arena, 22-year-old Salman Abedi set off a bomb that would end up killing 22 people and wounding countless more. Following the explosion, scared and confused people swarmed out of the venue, many with serious injuries. Instead of running for safety like most would do, Parker ran toward the victims, desperate to help as many as he could.
"They needed the help, I'd like to think that someone would come and help me if I needed the help," Parker told ITV News. "It's just instinct to go and help, if someone needed your help."
When he reached the arena exit where victims were streaming out of, Parker was faced with parents separated from their children and saw victims with shrapnel stuck in them. It was a harrowing sight, no doubt, but Parker did everything he could to help those he encountered.
"I saw a little girl ... she had no legs. I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said 'where is your mum and daddy?' She said 'my dad is at work, my mum is up there'," Parker told the Press Association.
He went on to describe a woman in her 60s with fatal leg and head injuries that he comforted. "She passed away in my arms. She was in her 60s and said she had been with her family. I haven't stopped crying."
Parker is still coping with the bombing, saying to the PA, "I don't think anything has sunk in yet. It's just shock." But there is a silver lining to this tragic event. A man named Michael Johns has set up a GoFundMe page for Parker, and it has already raised over £33,000 (over $42,500) in just one day. As if this isn't good enough news, the GoFundMe page, along with the various news reports on Parker, have caught his own mother's attention.
"This is my son and I am desperate to get in touch with him," Parker's mother commented on the GoFundMe page. "We have been estranged for a very long time, and I had no idea he was homeless. I am very proud of him, and I think he might need me right now."
As Parker said himself in his PA interview, "The most shocking part of [this attack] is that it was a kids' concert." So it's particularly heartwarming to know that at least one family could be reunited in the wake of so many families being torn apart.