What Could Have Happened! A little story about my sister, Mary Ann. Dear Friends, I am just as guilty of taking life for granted as anyone. Until I hit my 40’s, I never thought about my own mortality. Just took it for granted. You spend your whole life creating this story of your life. Ups and downs, good and bad times. Memories. Friends. Family. Places. This is our life. This is what we know. We know what we have done and we know no other life than the one we live in. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring but still we plan for it. I found out long ago, that things don’t always go as planned. When I was 4 years old, my sister 2, and I wandered down near Chartiers Creek in East Carnegie after a huge rain storm. Don’t ask how we got that far away from home. I can’t answer that. But you know kids, turn your head and poof! As we stood above a concrete structure that housed the storm drain and water was rushing out into the creek, which was moving very fast, how would I ever have thought that my most memorable moment with my sister was about to happen. I must have leaned over too far because I soon found myself clinging to the walls of the drain gulley as the water seemed to be tugging at my legs to pull me into the rapid creek. The walls were at about a 45 degree angle and had small pebbles mixed within the concrete. This is what I was able to clutch onto. Above stood my little sister, watching me struggle to survive. We had pulled a little red wagon with us when we came down here and she intuitively grabbed the handle of the wagon and lowered it along the wall so that I might grab hold. I reached and reached desperately to grab hold of it with no success. Sounds like a great rescue story is unfolding huh? Well it is!….. After trying again and again, I was unable to grab hold of the wagon that my sister held down for me. I must have been getting weak and soon the tireless water would be able to pull me in. It was then that I took whatever strength I had left and hand over hand dug my fingers into the pebbled concrete until I miraculously dragged my little 4 year old body up the slanted wall and to safety. Oh yeh, the great rescue story! Well, some years later I came to realize that had I been able to grab that wagon that Mary Ann was holding for me, I would have most likely pulled her into the raging water too! At 2 years old, chances are that she would have easily been dragged into the creek. Her life and mine were saved. And I am so glad that, one, it was me that fell in and not her and, two, that I was unable to grab hold of that wagon. Mary Ann passed away a few years ago from lung cancer.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 12:39:25 +0000
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