A Man and a Child Died in an Accident I Survived

I am alive today while others are not

Me walking on the beach at sunset with some friends in the background — photo by author

The first time I almost died, I was trying to save my then-closest friend from drowning in a pool. We were a group of high school friends at a pool resort.

We hit the deepest pool even when some of us couldn’t swim. The pool had a long slide, which the girls wanted to try. So I waited a few…