Past the Edge

May of '24 while on vacation with the kids, our 14 yr old, great swimmer, granddaughter got caught in a rip current while we were vacationing down on the FL panhandle.

So I went in after her...

I was both a Red Cross and Boy Scout trained Life Guard in my teens - but that was 50 years ago.

The May event is still too close and too raw to go into detail, but together, we both made it out.

She swam like a fish, but was starting to give up, "...Pops, I can't make it..." and I too was at my end.  It was only a deep commitment and love for her that kept me going. 

"...You've got this Arden, we're close...You can do it..."

Then and still now, I believe if either one of us were fighting it alone, it would have had a different ending.

And Thankfully, Arden was back in the water again later on!

We thoroughly investigated rip currents after the fact, and I can spot them quite accurately now, so we're more aware and better prepared!

And the guidance to swim sideways or perpendicular to the shore to get out of a rip current has gone from head knowledge to being an ingrained natural instinct now.

I've not spoken with Arden to query her thoughts and recollections about it...it might just be an old beach memory growing dim at this point.

But for me...it has generated a fair number of nightmares.  Thankfully, they're becoming less frequent now. 

I had another at 4:43am this morning - and I can't go back to sleep after them.  Which triggered writing this post.

And it might appear a bit melodramatic to write this way about an event from nearly a year ago.

But for me, if you've ever been there, you know the feeling...

It is the only time in my life where I knew I had crossed the edge - into an area where life looks very closely upon death.

Let the adventure continue...