Observations placeholder

In the 1950s I lived in the Cedar river area of Washington state.  Several friends and I were jumping off the clay bank of the river into an area that was safe to swim in.  We knew the dangerous areas of the river and normally avoided them.

On this particular day, I became careless and rather than wait my turn and jump into the safe area, I decided to jump into a particularly dangerous spot, a twenty foot hole that had a sucking whirlpool.

I was pulled down and then I came up.  I could see people panicking and trying to reach me from the shore with branches, but the pull of the water was too great and nobody was coming close to reaching me.  As I came up for the third time, I remembered the old saying that a drowning person comes up for air three times.

I was getting very tired.  I felt that I was being pulled down again.  This time though I felt as though I was standing still in the bottom.  A few feet from me appeared a rectangular light which was very brilliant but very soft at the same time.  Nothing in the world mattered at that time.  It was a moment of euphoric peace.

I remember reaching out for the light.  But before I had a chance to touch it, I was transported to the shore.  I know I wasn't swimming to the shore.  The light picked me up and took me there.