With Father's Day each June, my mind invariably turns to that terrible afternoon when I turned my back for less than three minutes that nearly cost my young daughter's life.
Then I sit to write yet again about the experience in hopes that readers will realize the briefest lapse of attention with a young child around water can quickly result in catastrophe.
The year was 1980 in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., north of San Diego. We had taken our children--Anna, not quite 3 and Brandon, 10--to a neighboring family's home for a cookout and swim in their backyard pool. It was an idyllic late-summer's afternoon. The other father was playing water volleyball with his son and mine as both mothers occupied themselves in the kitchen.
Anna happily occupied herself about 15 feet from the shallow side of the 28-foot pool. I was taking it all in from a poolside recliner. All was peaceful as the sun set and darkness settled in.
Then came a cry from inside for assistance in carrying dinner items out to the patio table. I saw Anna was still playing by herself as the two boys and father continued splashing and laughing. There was no indication I should be the least concerned, especially with those three presumed watchdogs just 15 feet away in chest-deep water.
In the kitchen, I chatted for no more than two minutes, then gathered dinner items and carried them back to the patio. Stepping outside, I looked at the spot where Anna had been. She was no longer there. The boys and father were still playing as if nothing was amiss. But I knew something had to be wrong with my daughter now out of place.
Setting dishes on the table, I looked more closely. The underwater pool lights had automatically flickered on as I continued scanning every foot of the backyard. Nothing. It was silent except for the boys chattering.
Then my gaze thankfully happened to fall on the shallow end, only about three feet deep. I immediately noticed an odd swirling motion at the top of the water and wondered what could be causing it.
Then it struck me with the force of a sledgehammer. It was Anna's fingertips barely breaking water. She was fully submerged and apparently had been since soon after I'd stepped inside. Neither the boys nor the father noticed her enter the pool.
I leapt into the water and grabbed little Anna around her waist, lifting her while shouting to the others. She was unconscious and I was in full panic mode. The mothers both came running outside as I breathed repeatedly into Anna's mouth then instinctively rolled her limp body over and began steadily pushing against her fragile chest, trying to expel the water she'd taken into her lungs.
There was no response for a minute while the wailing grew increasingly louder around me. I kept at my efforts to resuscitate her until, finally, Anna coughed. Then, from out of her mouth poured what seemed like a pint of water, spilling onto the pool deck around us.
Her coughing continued as increasingly smaller amounts of water continued draining from her lungs until finally she was fully conscious. The adults were laughing, crying and embracing in gratitude that we had not lost her. But, oh, we had come incredibly close.
Within a half-hour, Anna was back to normal and eating at the table alongside us. I continually thanked the God I'd prayed to so fervently only minutes earlier and realized what an irresponsible father I'd been to turn my back even for a couple of minutes on my small child around a swimming pool. It was a hard lesson. Yet obviously it's one that remains embedded through the decades.
I share this important story again because, sadly enough, this kind of thing with small children and pools happens nationwide at the rate of more than one a day during the summer months.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports 350 children under age 5 drown in pools each year, mostly in the backyard variety. Of that number, those between 1 and 4 years old have the highest drowning rates.
Such horror happens to even the best and most responsible families. Perhaps you read the other day about the popular country singer Granger Smith and his wife losing their 3-year-old son, River, to drowning in the family's backyard pool.
Now that summer is here, adults, parents, grandparents and others who take children around waterbodies (including rivers, creeks and lakes) risk tragedy if they don't put down their cell phones and remain constantly vigilant about every move the young ones make. Drownings most often are silent deaths, making them even more challenging to detect.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: "Most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than 5 minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time," That message sounded familiar.
And please, all you parents, grandparents and caretakers of children, don't ever make the irrevocable and potentially fatal mistake of thinking this can't happen to you.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 06/16/2019