The Day I Nearly Drowned In Paradise Part 2

Death had taken hold of me for a few crazy moments, it looked me square in the eyes and I tasted its sickly bitter sweet fragrance in my mouth. I had given up the fight and I thought it was the end of my life as my eyes closed and I started to sink into the cold cruel waters of the Atlantic Ocean. At that point I had  accepted   life was over for me, I wasn’t happy about it, there was so much I still had to do.

For some unknown reason death decided to let me come back from the dead and give me another chance at this amazing adventure called life. It wasn’t the end of my life, it was actually a new beginning.

To get so close to death, so close in fact that I had come to accept my fate. I was at peace with myself and life when my eyes closed and I thought that I was about to drown. It was an unbelievable episode, one minute I had been enjoying myself having a great time and in a flash I was accepting death and another moment later, I was on the shore with the sun blinding my eyes, wondering where I was.

One thing that amazes me is how peaceful a way drowning is to die. Drowning wasn’t as painful and torturous as I always assumed it to be. So if you have a loved one or a friend that has died from drowning, one small mercy is that I don’t think they would have died in pain.

I know we are both blessed and lucky to be here breathing in the smog filled air of London. People drown all the time in Barbados, in fact on my former wife’s, side of the family, she has countless relatives who have died from drowning. And they were men that worked the sea, and swam in it all their life’s and were better swimmers than I will ever be. Which gives me a big reality check, we were just lucky that it wasn’t our time to be taken.

My close encounter with death has made me realise that we never know when it is our time to die or how we are going to die. Something much bigger and more powerful than you or me, decides when it is our time to be taken.

A few days after I nearly drowned at Silversands, I was back down at the hotel having a few bottles of Carib Lager, feeling in a lot of pain but happy to be alive. I was sitting reading the local newspaper when one particular story grabbed my attention.

Two old Bajan brothers in there sixties were walking into the Atlantic Ocean for a sea bath. When a young guy passed them and told them to be careful out there as it was rough. They reassured the youngster that they had been swimming in this sea all their life’s and it wasn’t a problem.

Less than 30 minutes later their lifeless bodies were washed ashore, the cruel Ocean had drowned them. Having been so close to being drowned myself, I can see how the water can take anybody, whether you’re the best and most confident swimmer in the world.

Me and the kid were lucky, that the water brought us to the surface, to get the chance to fight for life. Other people are sucked under the water and are only brought to the surface when their bodies have had the life sucked out of them. Reading about those old timers downing was a reality check and reminded me how easily life can be taken away from us, whether we like it or not.

Our life and death fight in the Atlantic Ocean lasted less than 10 minutes, but they are moments that I will never forget as long as I live. We nearly drowned and it was almost the end of our life’s, but somehow we only fleetingly looked death in the face and it decided it wasn’t our time. I honestly feel that I was  quite literally brought  back from the dead.

Part 1  of “The Day I nearly Drowned In Paradise”

Related posts:

1. The Day I nearly Drowned In Paradise Part 1