If this doesn't rip out your heart then I don't know what will. Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity.
He thought he was going to die. He was having trouble breathing. As he lay wedged under a train seat and metal debris, he scrawled with whatever energy he could summon and a heartbreaking economy of words a farewell in blood on the seat. "I (heart) my kids. I (heart) Leslie," he printed. The blood ink seemed to be running out as he got to the second sentence. Captain Robert Rosario, the firefighter who discovered that message, later choked up as he related the story for TV cameras. Of all the images, sad or brave, pulled from the mangled wreckage of Wednesday's Metrolink train disaster, few captivated people more than this finger-painted testament of love. And none was more mysterious. Who was the message writer? What happened to him? Who is Leslie?
The mystery messenger was admitted to County USC Hospital, which received more than 100 phone calls from the public asking about him. "They mainly wanted to tell him that their prayers are with him," said County-USC spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda. He was discharged late Thursday and declined requests to talk with the media, she said. This much is known: Leslie is his wife. And his name is John. And he may not want the rest of the world to know even that much about him -- no matter how much they crave that and more.
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