150 Things - #150

I kinda thought this would be one of the items I would be explaining. Janet asked about my life saving experience so, here it is.

I was 11, my brother was 7. The whole family was headed to our Grandmothers for summer vacation and had stopped at a motel for the night. Back then, my parents took 2 days to drive from Pittsburgh to Savannah. They said it was just easier, but now that I've been a parent, I have come to learn that it is WAY less stressful on the parents to stop after 5 – 6 hours of driving, spend a night in a hotel, then finish the next day.

We were all at the pool. Mom and dad were sitting by a table talking and my brother and I were swimming and splashing around as kids do. Hehe (that’s what I called him for years because I couldn’t pronounce Iain) was jumping in the pool near the 5’ level using one of those round floatie things. Every time he’d kick back over to the edge, jump out, throw the floatie back in and jump again. The last time he jumped in he went straight through the ring. When he came up, he was in full panic mode, coughing, spitting with arms flailing all over the place. I lunged for him and grabbed him around the waist and thrust him up out of the water. Now remember we were kids, little kids. This action abruptly sent me to the bottom of the pool with him hugging the hair off of my head. I started bobbing up and down towards the shallower end trying to breath myself with each bob. Once I got to where I could breathe without bobbing he calmed down and grabbed for the pool edge.

Keep in mind all of this happened in about 5 seconds. As soon as my mom and dad saw this unfolding my dad dove in and swam over to us. So, as I was helping Hehe get onto the edge my dad was basically throwing both of us out of the pool (it was an adrenalin thing).

Looking back I’m sure my dad would have made it in time to have saved him. But everyone said I did it.