Little girl saves father’s life

By Denice Thibodeau
Danville Register & Bee
Published: May 20, 2008

When Leslie Sheets left for work at about 8 a.m. Sunday, her 6-year-old daughter, Caribbea, was still asleep and her husband, Donald, was tilling the garden.

It was a fairly normal day at the Sheets’ house in Cascade — but that would soon change drastically.

Donald started to feel sick to his stomach, and headed for the house. He collapsed on the porch, and called for help.

Caribbea heard him, despite being upstairs in a room with the door shut and window air-conditioner running, and ran downstairs to see what was wrong.

“I called 911 and I told them where I lived, and daddy was sick,” Caribbea said Monday afternoon. She said she learned how to do that at her school, Stony Mill Elementary.
Caribbea called her mother next, at the Whistle Stop Café in Brosville, which is owned by the Sheets.

Leslie said she told Caribbea to give Donald an aspirin, but the child couldn’t find any at home and the neighbors didn’t have any either.

“The Brosville Fire Department Life Saving Crew got here and they gave him one,” Leslie said. “They were great; they got here in about 10 minutes and took care of him.

“I’ve never actually seen them in action and I couldn’t be more pleased. At the emergency room, they said if (Caribbea) had not called when she called, (Donald) would have died.”

Joyce Hammock, an employee at the café, followed Leslie to her house after Caribbea had called her to see if she could help.

“He (Donald) thought he was going to die,” Hammock said. “I told him the Lord was with him and he wasn’t going to die.”

Hammock also said that Caribbea, who had been so cool during the initial crisis, was quickly becoming scared herself, and they sat together in Hammock’s car to give the child a chance to calm down.

Sabrina Edwards, also an employee at the café, said it was a blessing that Caribbea handled things as well as she did.

“She’s daddy’s little angel,” Edwards said.

Caribbea has a new friend now, a stuffed bear the firefighters brought to the café for her in appreciation of her quick thinking.

“They said she was a hero,” Leslie said.

Her new friend’s name? Hero, of course.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.