Per Young, the song is about a time where she saw someone who was dying and had to decide whether or not to go get help, or just let it happen.
Related, from an interview at AskMeAskMeAsk (dot) Me:
Q: If you could travel back in time and tell your younger self one thing, when would you travel to and what would you tell yourself?
A: I would go back to my involvement with my first boyfriend and tell myself “Run as fast as you can away from this person.” He was really a continuation of what my parents had done to me. He almost killed me twice — this is not a cutesy overstatement. He was abusive and suffocated me on two different occasions until I was passed-out and dying….then…..he would shake me until I was conscious again. I had such low self-esteem then. I had it in my mind that he was the only one I could relate to, but he stole a lot of my life. After him I never put up with anything that resembled abuse of any kind. I did learn. Some people don’t.
Per Young, the song is about a time where she saw someone who was dying and had to decide whether or not to go get help, or just let it happen.
Related, from an interview at AskMeAskMeAsk (dot) Me:
Q: If you could travel back in time and tell your younger self one thing, when would you travel to and what would you tell yourself?
A: I would go back to my involvement with my first boyfriend and tell myself “Run as fast as you can away from this person.” He was really a continuation of what my parents had done to me. He almost killed me twice — this is not a cutesy overstatement. He was abusive and suffocated me on two different occasions until I was passed-out and dying….then…..he would shake me until I was conscious again. I had such low self-esteem then. I had it in my mind that he was the only one I could relate to, but he stole a lot of my life. After him I never put up with anything that resembled abuse of any kind. I did learn. Some people don’t.