November 6, 2018 (continued)
Tori and I never did end up reconnecting the remainder of our trip down the river – the water was too swift. I prayed off and on, my kayak in one hand and paddle in the other. At one point there was a massive log in the river and I knew that from what I had just went through that if Tori wasn’t prepared that she was going to run into the log and injure herself. She was already beat up from a few of the logs and branches hitting her in the water. I had fared much better than she up to that point. However, I knew that if she was anywhere within ear shot of my voice that I would have to scream to have her be able to hear me without the use of her hearing aids. So, at the top of my voice I screamed, “Go to your left! Go to your left!” I didn’t know if she heard me or not, but it was worth a try.
I hoped that Tori wasn’t far behind; every so often I would turn around to look for her, but she was nowhere in sight. I later was told that she could see my burnt orange ball cap every now and then and knew that I was still floating in the river up ahead.
The last mile marker that I saw was the 1.5-mile marker. And, not too long afterwards I saw a bridge above. It didn’t make sense though because I didn’t feel like I had gone another half a mile already to be on the lookout for the exit of the kayaking adventure. It turns out that there are two bridges. Either way, I saw the first bridge and realized that I needed to begin to attempt to head towards the left side of the river sooner than I thought due to the fast-moving water.
It was about another quarter of a mile before I saw the second bridge. I wasn’t sure if it was the right bridge or not so I yelled out, “Is there anyone up there? Can anyone hear me?” in hopes that someone might hear my voice and respond. Thankfully, while we couldn’t see each other, we could hear each other and they let me know that they were not far away. I was so thankful; and, even though I was tired from the morning’s experiences, I began to actively swim my way towards a point that I had to believe was not too far away.
I went one mile by myself in the murky river before my trip was over, but not without one more heart pounding moment. Even though I made my way to the left side of the river to end my journey, the water was again too swift. I could feel myself being pulled toward the center and down the river. In desperation I held out my paddle in hopes that someone would grab it and pull me in. Thankfully, a man waiting for us at the request of the two kayakers from the beginning of our trip waited for us and helped me to get out of the river. He pulled me in by my paddle, took my kayak from me, and lifted me by my lifejacket out of the water after I was too weak to do so myself.
It took a lot out of me to go down the river. But, while my adventure was over, Tori’s was not. I told the three people waiting what happened and not five minutes later I saw Tori floating down the river towards where I was standing.
I could immediately tell that something wasn’t right. I was tired, but she looked absolutely exhausted. Of the 2-mile trip, Tori spent almost the whole 2-miles of it in the river and I spent about 1.5 miles of it in the river. However, upon her exiting the river she was able to motion to us about her chest. She doesn’t tell everyone that she wears a pacemaker but it’s not something that she hides either. The people who hosted the kayaking trip were aware but the people with us on the bank of the river weren’t. Thankfully, she able to understand through lip reading, even without her hearing aids, to know that I was asking if I was allowed to tell them. And, by grace, the man who pulled me out of the river was an Army medic and was able to monitor her heartbeat. She let us know that after her scare with the dam in the river that her pacemaker went off twice. She floated the rest of her 1-mile journey with her pacemaker having gone off twice and in silence, without the use of her hearing aids to sense the world around her. Thankfully, after about 45 minutes, her heartbeat slowed to a normal pace and we were able to leave and go back to her house. If it had gone off one more time we would have had to go to the hospital.
In the end, I was able to walk away much less injured than she. I had just a couple of scratches, but she had bruises and cuts. I later learned that Tori did hear me when I yelled for her to go to her left. She was surprised that she could hear me and thought that I must have been yelling loud. I was yelling loud; but, honestly, now knowing how deaf she really is, it was only by the grace of God that she heard and understood me. It makes no sense otherwise. I was yelling loud, but not loud enough for a deaf person (now I that I know just how deaf) to be able to hear me when I couldn’t even see her in the river. I know that sound travels over water, but still… God was in it. When I look back on some of the video that I took with my phone the water doesn’t look that swift, but you don’t realize how fast it really is until you’re in it. There was later a natural disaster in my area with lots of flooding and the banks of the same river overflowed. I was in awe when I recalled how tall the banks were and how much it spilled over into the town above. I can only imagine how fast the current was when that happened.
Now, it is a miracle by itself that we didn’t end up more injured than we did that day. It was traumatic for us. I also found out that all of the kayakers that day ended up in the water due to the conditions of the river. The one (and only) person who stayed dry that day was the person in a canoe.
I haven’t dramatized any part of the story and maybe it doesn’t sound like a big deal to you. It probably was more minor for some people than it was for us; but, both Tori and I had experiences in the river that day where we thought we were going to die – she more than me because her pace maker also went off twice in addition to her thinking she was going to drown.
As it turns out, we were able to laugh later that day about our experience. But, Tori had nightmares for a while. And, I couldn’t help but notice some tall mounds of dirt with trees nearby that reminded me of the river. Neither one of us plans to go kayaking any time soon… and definitely not on any moving water. I’ll stick to the closed bodies of water (small ponds/lakes) near my house.
One small note – I was still experiencing the spiritual battle that I was going through this summer during this adventure. It was just prior to it ending a week or so later. So, maybe the devil was trying to get me to worry and be scared about more things in my life. I don’t know. What I do know is that God got me through it!
Here’s the thing though… I would have never agreed to sign up for kayaking that day had I known in advance the details of what I would experience that day – even knowing how it all would end and that I would be fine. I’ve thought about that for a while now. But, what I didn’t think about until today was how I knew that while going down the river, I was certain there was an end to the journey. I just couldn’t see it. It was a 2-mile trip down the river. The mile markers helped me to sort of know where I was along the way, but at some point in the river it seemed as though I was moving slower or faster than other parts of the trip. And, for a very long time I couldn’t see the end; I only knew that I had to keep on going in order to successfully get to the end.
We’re almost at the end of this post!
See you again soon,
Penelope G.