Fate.....

[le Voyageur]

Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day spent walking the beach with my wife, who, over the past few months has been burdened with the care of her grandmother. Just don't get to see her as much as I like, so these small moments mean a lot.

Needless to say, we couldn't stay long. She back to her grandmother, and for me the long drive back home.

Later that evening, watching the local news the current story was about a 15 year drowning victim. Needless to say, we walked by that family, who's son drowned shortly after we left the area. Dispite thier best effort, they couldn't save him...

 

I keep thinking, had my wife and I walked a little slower, or left a little later, I could of helped, and maybe this family would still have their son....fate is the only thing that comes to mind as I reflect on this...

 

[eisely]

I had a similar experience many years ago in Northern Virginia in the winter. My very young sons and I were walking around a very irregularly shaped pond with a trail around it. At one point I observed a group of boys playing on the opposite shore. We continued walking and lost sight of them. Our path then took us through the area where the boys had been playing. What I did not know was that minutes before we passed through that spot, one of these foolish, untrained boys had ventured out onto the ice and had fallen in. The other boys had run for help. By the time we got back to our starting point, emergency crews, including a diver, had shown up. They managed to recover the body, but were not able to revive the boy. It may still have been possible to save that boy at the momoent that we passed by, but we did not know he was there under the ice. A somewhat sobering experience.

[scoutldr]

Don't be too hard on yourself, LeV. I am in the same area and read the news report. While this was indeed a tragedy, it didn't need to happen. Several cardinal rules of water safety were violated. The beach was unsupervised (no lifeguards). It's unclear if they had adult supervision (lookout). The youth who drowned did not know how to swim and his buddies were weak swimmers. There have been daily warnings of rip currents and we had a strong nor-easter the day before, which could have altered the ocean bottom depth. This was the latest of many drownings at the same stretch of beach. If only they had been Scouts...

[Fuzzy Bear]

One Sunday afternoon my Father had invited another family to go with us to the lake. I was 17, an Eagle Scout and a good swimmer. Mark F. was the same age, an Eagle Scout and a good swimmer. My Dad always drove the boat, so I did not know how to start it or drive. Looking back, it was really pretty simple but it was Dad's domain, kind of an unspoken policy. Both families had taken boat rides, some had water skied so by early evening most were up under the dining fly eating supper. Mark and I were sitting on the beach talking when he heard his sister. She was about 12 and had strayed out too far. She was drowning. Mark jumped up and began swimming. I yelled to my Dad to get the boat but I didn't wait for a reply. I instinctively grabbed a large rubber inner tube and went in after them. I was swimming with all my might when I heard Mark yell something. I knew he had reached his sister but they both were now waving their arms and I couldn't figure out why. I kept on swimming with this tube that now felt like a million pounds. I finally reached them and when I did, I realized that all of us were about to drown if not for that inner tube.

 

Nobody on the shore had heard my call. Both Mark and I were too embarrassed to tell anybody what had happened. We had acted without really thinking and all of us could have easily gone down that day. I was never sure of the reasons I had grabbed that tube other than I might have remembered in the back of my head about "reach, throw, row, go". It somehow just didn't seem right to just "go". I am grateful for the little bit that I did remember.

 

FB

[cubbingcarol]

We must not live our lives by 'what if'. For if you do you will waste it. Just be ever mindful of how precious time really is and spend it wisely.

 

Carol

[Lynda J]

We can't do the Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. Believe me. 5 Years ago I lost my husband to cancer. I did the W,C,S, If only I had made him go to the Dr sooner, they could have stopped the spread. Well guess what. They couldn't have. It took me two years to accept the fact that I could have done nothing more than I did.

 

This year Kevin's school lost their campus police officer to a heart attack on campus. Seems no one knew CPR. Kevin was upset because he does and felt if he had been there he might have been able to save the officer that he loved. Could he have, probably not because I found out he was dead before he hit the ground. Would trying have changed the way Kevin thought about it. I don't honestly know. But it could have also made him feel much worse because he might have felt he didn't try hard enough.

My wonderfully wise Gran use to say. "God gives us a calendar of life. When he tears off the last page our job on this earth is done and he needs us back" Sometimes we simply don't understand the reasoning. But don't beat yourself up about it.