by Betty Carew

Created on: June 23, 2009

There are some situations in life that may bring us close to death maybe sometimes without us even realizing how close we came, it is times like this we may find our true heroes. As a child of eleven my sisters, brothers and a few friends headed out a swimming hole. This is the day I realized I had a hero; I didn't have to go looking for one he lived in our home. I knew we had a strong bond but never realized just how strong a bond until the day I almost drowned.

It was a beautiful sunny day as and we chatted with excitement as we took the long walk to a swimming hole we didn't go to very often. This added to the excitement of the day and everyone was in high spirits. My older oldest brother Eddie carried me for a while which wasn't unusual he would lift me high on his shoulders and I would love it. Finally we arrived at the large pond that had caused so much excitement.

I was mush younger than my older brother and we soon found a suitable spot to swim, the older ones were at the deeper end of the pond while the younger ones gathered at the shallow end. Things were going great until one of my friends dared me to swim across the pond which joined onto the road. I knew I wasn't a strong swimmer but hey, it was a dare and at eleven that was strong words. It didn't occur to me that my friend was male, a stronger swimmer than I and a lot more at home in the water. it didn't matter I was up for the challenge.

We went up to a large rock the older ones were jumping off and I started my swim, I was feeling a little proud that I hadn't backed down from the challenge meanwhile my friend was far ahead of me. When I reached the center I knew I was in trouble. I remember sinking under the water and total panic set in. I fought my way to the surface only to go down once more, I remember that I didn't cry out, I tried but no sound came. Again I surfaced, and the third time I went under but to my amazement I felt comfortable and the struggle came to an end.

I didn't know at the time but my brother had left the shore when he saw me go down the first time. It was his hand that locked in my hair and brought me to the surface. It took a long while of him holding me while he trod water before I tried to swim back to shore by his side. I remember that I didn't want to swim back now that I had regained my senses, I was gripped in terror. My brother encouraged me to swim with the reassurance that he would be right by my side all the way. Finally we reached the big rock and my

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