PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 66 - Almost Drowning One Winter Day

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS

Pawpaw loves Connor, Bryson and Archer!

I miss you guys so much. I hope you find these messages some day. I want you to know that I love you. I never left you. I was no longer allowed to visit you. I hope these messages help you know your Pawpaw and your family better. All my love forever, Pawpaw

Almost Drowning One Winter Day

   One day I went for a walk in the winter woods behind our house. I was in elementary school. I crossed the railroad bridge and was walking down the frozen creek as I had done many times before. Suddenly, I heard a horrible sound. It sounded like a rifle shot and it echoed through the trees. It was not a rifle shot. It was the sound of a huge crack appearing in the ice under my feet.

   I just had a second or two to realize what was happening when the ice snapped and I fell into the freezing stream. It was flowing so hard, I started to be pulled under the ice. If I had gone under, I would not have been able to get back up to breathe. My snow boots and my winter coat were soaked and dragging me under. I kept trying to throw myself on top of the ice but it kept breaking and plunging me back into the water and almost under the ice again and again. My whole body started to hurt. It felt like pins and needles were being jabbed into me everywhere. My hands did not want to work, they were so cold. I thought I was going to die. I began to yell, “Help me! Help me!”

   Suddenly, I heard a voice call back, “Where are you?”

  “By the bridge,” I yelled back as I fought to keep from being pulled under the ice. I was running out of strength quickly. The ice cold water just sapped my strength away as well as my ability to use my arms and fingers.

   Two teenagers appeared on top of the railroad bridge and then ran down to the edge of the stream. They looked under the snow for a tree branch and when they found one, they held it out for me to grab. My hands could barely hang on but after several tries, they pulled me on top of the ice and then on to the bank.

   They each took one of my arms, asked me where I lived and began to walk me home, mostly carrying me along. As I walked, my clothes began to freeze with all the water in them. When we got to my house, I tried to grab the doorknob but my skin stuck to it.

   My brother Skip and Dad saw me come in the door and raced to help me. Dad phoned a doctor who told him to put me in the bathtub immediately, start to fill it with cold water and then gradually warm it. It was excruciating! Imagine every inch of your body being jabbed by needles. That is the feeling I got again while sitting in that bathtub as the warm water began surrounding my frozen skin.

   I never knew who those teenagers were. I never got to thank them. I am so glad they chose to walk through the snowy, winter woods that day. If they hadn’t, I would have surely been pulled under the ice and drowned.