I Almost Drowned, and I Didn't Tell My Family

Have you ever wondered what it's like to experience a near-death situation?
What thoughts run through a person's head in the moments before you die?
Why did it happen in the first place, and how did I escape?
How has it affected me in the months since my closest call ever?

I'll tell you!

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"We are all of us resigned to death: it's life we aren't resigned to." - Graham Greene

I remember that day like it happened yesterday.
The breeze was warm as I stood on the balcony of our 23rd story hotel room last year. The water was turquoise green against a bright blue sky.
It was early in the day, and people were already lining the beach as far as the eye could see. My family had already went down to the beach to soak up the hot sun and work on their tans.

Being from Indiana, and not one to ever really go shirtless in the sun, I knew that if I decided to go to the beach, there was no way I was going to take my shirt off, because if I did, I knew the consequences of a few hours of hot sun on my pale skin would be quite painful.

I should have went fishing instead

Actually, I had planned to go fishing that very day with my nephew, but he suddenly changed his mind at the last minute and go swimming. I told him to tell everyone that I would be joining them shortly.

From the balcony, I could see a shallow bar of sand that looked to be about twenty yards from shore. There were people standing on it, and the water only appeared to be about knee deep. The waves were much bigger out on that sand bar, and I always liked jumping into the larger waves because it was just more fun than those puny waves nearer the shore. I decided I was going to make my way out to that second bar and enjoy it with all the other people who were already out there. Big mistake.

I put my swim trunks on and headed out the door. It was a good walk to the elevator, at least 2 minutes worth of nonstop walking around the edge of the massive hotel. I pushed the elevator button and waited. And waited. And waited some more.
After 10 minutes I got tired of waiting and opted for the stairs instead. When I stepped foot on the first floor, my legs felt like jello. 23 floors sure does do a number on your legs!

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I walked out of the hotel and straight to the beach to join my family. Several of them were out in the water, but I needed to rest my legs a bit before I went out to join them. After a few minutes I was ready, so I headed down to the water.
The cooling sensation of the water instantly made the weakness in my legs go away. Soon I forgot that I had just walked down 23 flights of stairs.

Bad luck in salt water

I should have known something would go wrong since I was a tourist from Indiana. In fact, this wasn't the first time something had gone wrong while swimming in the ocean. Just two years before this something swam into my leg and hit me hard! To this day I have no idea what it was, but it left me with a large bruise and a cut leg, as you can see in the photo below...

I told you I was white lol, and that really did hurt big time. It felt like getting hit by a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher!

Anyways, back to my story.

Everyone was having fun in the water, and it seemed like they all had a beer in their hand. When asked if I wanted one I said no, but eventually peer pressure gave in and I opened one for myself. I really didn't feel like drinking out there, so after a few sips I purposely let a wave crash over me and fill the beer can just so I didn't have to drink it.

That was the moment I remembered the sand bar from the balcony.

I looked up the beach and there were still a lot of people out there having fun, and I wanted to join in, so I slowly began to move away from my family members and walk up the beach in the chest-deep water to a spot that didn't look too difficult to swim out to the bar. I had swam the distance before, and I knew I could do it if I took my time and didn't exert myself too much. So I tried it.

It was easy swimming, the waves weren't too large and I was making good progress across the deeper part of the water. I had assumed that the water was no more than shoulder deep or so, and that if I got tired I could simply stop and rest for a minute and then continue on with my swim. Well, about halfway across the deep part, my legs began to get tired extremely quickly. I decided to take a break, so I let my legs sink to touch the bottom, but there was no bottom to touch. The water was much deeper than I thought, and it caused me to panic a bit. I set off swimming towards the bar again but I was having trouble getting my legs to come back up to help propel me. I tried harder, and it completely wore my arms out. I was in trouble.

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I couldn't yell for help, I felt that I would slip underwater if I let the air out of my lungs. I was frantically trying to swim to safety, but I wasn't making it anywhere. Waves were washing over my head, and no one had noticed that I was in trouble. My arms were getting slower, and my legs had all but stopped working......

I thought of my family down the beach having fun

I hadn't told them where I was going, and I didn't ask anyone to go with me. They didn't know that I was fighting for my life a few hundred yards away from them. They couldn't see me. I thought "this can't be happening", and
"I want to be back with them drinking a nasty beer right now instead of fighting for my life!" I thought about my mom and sister back home. And my brother. I refused to believe what was happening to me. It was making me extremely lightheaded. I think it was the disbelief and realization slamming into me from every direction that made me feel so strange, like a warped verson of deja vu, all twisted and dripping with a sobering dose of realizing I was going to die. I hadn't dreamed in a million years that this is how my story was going to end....

I owe them my life

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As I was just about to go under and fill my lungs with water, I realized there was a girl about 30 feet away from me paddling out on a body board. I spit water out of my mouth and asked her if she could help me. I think I sounded like a hurt puppy when I asked, you know, almost whimpering. The girl looked at me as if she heard me, and paddled towards me. She stopped about 5 feet from me and smiled, and told me she didn't speak English! She knew I was in trouble, but she was reluctant to help me. I was sinking by then, and the only thing I could do was reach out and grab her board. I didn't pull myself towards her, because the look on her face made me realize she didn't know how to swim. It was extremely difficult for me to hold onto it with one hand at a distance, because my body was done. I told the girl I was sorry, and told her I was going to drown if I let go, but I know she couldn't understand what I was saying.

I looked back toward the sand bar and saw a guy watching us, and then he began paddling toward us on his body board. I figured he was the girl's boyfriend. When he got close I simply said "Can you help me get back to shore? in a worrisome tone. He stopped, said something to the girl in an accent that sounded Russian or Slovenian, then she took his board, and he took hold of the one I was holding onto and said "Come on". I'm so glad he knew some English!

We started back towards shore and he says "you can't swim?". I told him I could, but I was completely exhausted. He told me to paddle with him towards shore, but by then I couldn't. I was grasping the board with both hands while my legs just hung suspended in the water.
We got to within 20 feet of shore and I slowly felt for the bottom with my foot and felt sand. I was emotionally overwhelmed, but I was hiding it behind my sun glasses. I told him I could make it from there, and I thanked him immensely for helping me. He smiled and said ok, then we parted ways. I stood there, staring at the water for what felt like an hour. I wish I had gotten his name or something. They both deserved so much more than a simple 'thank you'. So much more.

I slowly made my way back down the beach to my family. They were having the time of their lives and I didn't want to ruin it for them, so I acted like nothing ever happened. To this day, I still haven't told them. I don't know why I haven't told them. Too embarrassing for me maybe. Or it could be that I want them to think that all of our vacations together have been incident free (other than the son of a bitch whatever-it-was that hit me in the leg out in the water 2 years prior).

The experience changed me

I find myself a lot more thankful for the people I have in my life these days. I stop and enjoy the moments, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. I love life and I love all of you! And I love the two strangers who saved my life that day on the beach.

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The message in that photo quote isn't always the easiest to live by. Sometimes I find myself right back there in the water again with that same feeling of impending death, but I shake it off and keep going. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives! Always remember that.

Until next time,

God bless, and take care.

Oh, and I'd like to give a shoutout to @kiwideb for everything she's done for me over the last week and a half. Thank you for all of the suggestions and everything.

If you would like some tips on writing, and furthering your blogging skills, follow #dolphinschool at @markrmorrisjr !

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