Mike Paterniti

This is what we do at lunch.

And drinking loosens the tongue.

And so, you know, get with the program.

And if you can't, then why don't we, you know, why don't you put on a dress?

But then he, you know, at lunch he definitely opened up a little bit more.

I mean, he wasn't looking at me when he answered questions, but he was answering them and he was speaking more expansively about life on the bridge.

Did he explain why it is that he does this?

He said he had read a newspaper article about the bridge and about people jumping off the bridge.

And he himself had grown up in the country outside of Nanjing.

So he really related in particular to these people from the villages who came to the bridge to end their lives and whose lives were hard and full of despair.

And he completely understood that.

Yeah, and then he jumped on his moped to go on his rounds.

And I didn't have anything to do, but I turned to the translator, Susan, and I said, hey, let's take a little walk out on the bridge.

And so we started walking out over the bridge, and we're chatting a little bit.

And this guy kind of came lurching by, and I didn't pay any attention to him.

But this guy's about 20 feet, 30 feet ahead of us, and he seems to be climbing up on the railing.

And at that point, I just yelled, hey.

Hey.

And then I said to Susan, he's going to go over.

And I started running for him, and Susan came running.