A Man and a Child Died in an Accident I Survived
I am alive today while others are not
The first time I almost died, I was trying to save my then-closest friend from drowning in a pool. We were a group of high school friends at a pool resort.
We hit the deepest pool even when some of us couldn’t swim. The pool had a long slide, which the girls wanted to try. So I waited a few feet from the slide’s mouth to help swim the girls to safety.
The first slid down, screaming in glee, and I caught her and swam her to the pool’s edge. Then another did. Everything worked out smoothly, and I was just starting to catch my breath and stretch my muscles when the third one, my close friend, hit the slide without warning.
I didn’t have the time to signal her to let me get my bearings first. Before I knew it, both of us were struggling to stay above water.
My friend is slim and, at five feet and two inches, petite. But my arms were strained from swimming and carrying the other girls without rest. My friend and I sunk into that pool. In her panic, she gripped my arms tightly, and it became even harder to swim.
Under the water, the music slowed. It sounded exactly like those sound effects you hear in the movies, where the character sees the bubbles floating to the surface, and…
