EVERYONE, BE CAREFUL. The waves can be extremely dangerous.
Last night Bob and I went out to watch the ferocious waves and decided to drive down to the jetty. Taking photos, I captured a man being pulled out of the water and thought he might be dead, but he was alive. I watched a man save a life! Then I ended up on the beach helping his wife pull him up farther as the waves kept coming in higher and higher while the man who saved his life was calling 911 and the injured man's wife. The man had been fishing and a wave brought a log in that somehow broke his leg and trapped him under it. I got wet helping him. Those waves just kept coming in! When the man's wife arrived, I followed her home driving her husband's truck because it isn't legal to park overnight at the jetty. Her neighbor brought me home and took her to the hospital to be with her husband. I never met any of these people before, but I must be shook up because I had a hard time sleeping and woke up early thinking about everyone involved, especially the injured man.
Then as the ambulance people were taking care of him, I saw four people (two adults, two children) on the beach at the jetty and wanted to scream at them to get off, but a wave did the trick and had them running. I have always thought about the dangers of sneaker waves, but I never thought before how a log can come in with a sneaker and actually kill someone!
We have a book in production called SUNRISES AND SUNSETS: A Final-Affairs Planning Guide for People of ALL Ages by Holley Kelley. This incident is just another reminder how fragile life is and how it can be changed in an instant. When I think my gratitude for all I have can't get any deeper, something like this happens and puts my GRATITUDE in NEON LIGHTS! And it makes me so eager for her book to come out so I can fill in every single detail!
Cleone, sometimes we are just at the right place, at just the right time, for just the right reasons! How fortunate for this family that you stepped in and served as a helpful stranger! I know he and his family are counting their blessings that he is alive! Life is definitely fragile and there are no guarantees from each Sunrise to the Sunset! So, the gratitude of each day is just as you say—up to us!