Photo: Sue Vincent
The weather was perfect. The hike had been pleasant. They stopped for a picnic on the bank of the stream as it rushed toward the waterfall. The normally bubbling brook was swollen with recent rains. The white water speeding down the creek and tumbling over the edge was energizing. The sun felt delicious on their faces. The flowering fields were glorious in early spring.
Other families were enjoying the day, too. Most stayed above the waterfalls. Any intrepid hikers who navigated down the steep slope to view the falls from the bottom were met with signs that warned against entering the water. The rocky pool was filled with unseen boulders, not to mention freezing cold with winter flow and melt.
Suddenly, the calm at the top of the falls was interrupted by a cry. A child of about ten years slipped on the bank above the falls. The wet surface, still damp from earlier rains, allowed no traction, and the child slid into the water. The strong flow quickly grabbed hold of her and she was swept toward the 45-foot drop. The girl’s mother screamed. The father tried to grab hold of his daughter but ended up helplessly in the water, too. Another man attempted to help, only to himself be lassoed by the water. The child’s mother and siblings, the Good Samaritan’s wife, and the picnickers watched in helpless horror as all three were swept by the white water and tumbled over the edge, quite possibly to their deaths.
The eldest son of the picnicking family ran down the trail along with a few others, hoping to assist survivors (or at least retrieve bodies so they not be carried further downstream and through additional cataracts). Rescue services were called. People rushed to the head of the falls to try and look down, afraid of seeing the worst.
Miraculously, all three survived the fall. The father and daughter managed to swim to the edge of the pool. The man who’d tried to help had made it through, as well. Both men were wounded. One with a broken nose. The other with an injured hand and lungs. The little girl was shaken, shaking, and freezing, but otherwise unharmed. With the help of others, all three were able to get up the trail back to the top of the falls, where they were reunited with their terrified families.
While recuse was coordinated, the girls of the picnicking family took off their sweaters, jackets, and socks and bundled the freezing little girl, who was drenched to the bone and had lost her shoes in the water, into layers of dry clothing.
It became evident that rescue personnel would need to hike the two miles in, so it was decided to try to walk out toward the paramedics. Slowly, with people assisting the wounded and carrying everyone’s belongings, the convoy of children and adults trudged along the trail, all stunned by what they had just experienced and/or witnessed. When help arrived, the child’s father was carried by stretcher the rest of the way and then all three evacuated in a waiting ambulance.
“I’m still processing this,” a witness shared later that day. “These moments while they were being carried toward and then fell over the waterfall … a mere few yards to our left … and us seeing it all happen … This could have been such a tragedy for the families and an awful trauma for all of us … It is amazing that this is how it ended.”
“How to process what I saw?” another witness wrote. “I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind, that the picture I’d taken of the happy family twenty minutes before all this occurred, could have been the last photo of their complete family … I saw near-death, fear, terror, anguish, redemption, joy, awe, and lots and lots of love. I saw people who came together, oblivious of background, because we are all part of the human race and we all value life and our families … and at the end of the day want to live together in peace and harmony and make this world a better place for our children. I saw people reach out and help one another, and think only of the other, not themselves.”
§§§§
Note: When I saw Sue’s photo prompt, I knew that this one was not going to be fiction. Not when the photo she chose is so uncannily reminding of the very waterfall where the child had slipped earlier this week. Yes, the story above is true. My sister’s family was the “picnicking family” mentioned above, my nephew had ran down the trail to help, my sister and nieces had helped dry and bundle the child in their clothes. In the photo below, you can see the falls. They’d been picnicking mere steps from where the people in the photo are standing. How all three survived not just the dangerous tumble, but the sharp rocks at the bottom of the falls is still a marvel. Whew. Here’s to humanity first. To teaching children how to swim. And to miracles.
Waterfall A.L.
For Sue Vincent’s Write Photo Challenge
Na'ama Yehuda 
!וואו!.. מפחיד ..מרגש.. ומפעים
…כמה נוגע ללב העזרה הספונטנית והיכולת האנושית לשרוד מפל שוצף ונפילה
…נוסח תקווה שישרדו ויעברו בשלום גם את הטלטלה הרגשית הנלווית לאירוע
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אכן, אנושיות ועזרה לאחר היא בסופו של דבר מה שחשוב …
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Wow! That is an unbelievable story and by your photo I can see why Sue’s made you think of it immediately! There was a God watching out for them that day! So terrifying. It really makes you see reality for what it is and be thankful for the things you have.
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Thanks, Stine! Yes, totally amazing! Potentially traumatizing, for sure, for everyone involved, but somehow – miraculously – with an ending that is uplifting. Here’s to each of us being good to others, for in the end, it is the only thing that matters.
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I just commented to another blogger that I used to tell my students that the most important thing in life is knowing you are doing the right things.
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Yes, it is so important to know we’re doing what we can, that we have options and are doing the best we can with what we have while keeping to the things that matter – connection, integrity, compassion.
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What a terrifying, yet ultimately wonderful tale, Na’ama! I can see now what you meant about synchronicity. I am so glad this story did not end in tragedy.
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I’m SO glad it didn’t end in tragedy, too!!! Whew. It was terrifying enough for them to witness it and for the few moments where they thought they’d just seen three people plunge to their deaths … At least – thankfully – the end result was a lot less horrid!
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Even so, it must have been very traumatic for all who were there.
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I think it was certainly highly distressing! Hopefully the ending helped it not become traumatic, at least not for all. The kids (who might not have fully understood the implications of what might’ve happened) seem to have processed it on the spot and moved on … The adults? I think it’ll take a bit longer to get distance from it … but hopefully no lasting trauma. Sigh.
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The thing to take from it is that it did not become a tragedy, but instead a testament to the human spirit with everyone helping in their own way.
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Exactly! Trauma tends to happen more when one feels helpless and cannot ACT to make something better or less awful for themselves or others. At first, people WERE helpless when they saw the others swept over the edge, but then, thankfully, all survived and the next actions WERE about making it better
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…and the ‘now’ has a story of both heroism, survival and beating the oddsto add to the relief.
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Yes! Exactly! 🙂
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Whoa, what an experience. It made my heart race just reading. What courage and resilience from all the people involved. Thank goodness no one died.
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Yes! Thank goodness no one died and no one broke their spine and no one got otherwise seriously injured! This was more traumatizing in the ‘what could’ve happened’ while they saw this, than in what actually ended up happening. AND, it highlights how crucial it is for every child to know how to swim. I’ve no doubt this ‘water awareness’ helped the child not drown, disoriented and shaken up and frozen as she was.
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Yes, the trauma of ‘the what if’s’ after terrible experiences really takes a lot of working through. I hope all concerned are able to find peace of mind.
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Me, too! So far, so good, and I’m glad that people know they can debrief as much as they need as they need to!
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A terrifying experience for all. So glad it all ended in smiles.
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Yes, me too! And with a whole lot of debriefing for everyone involved. I’m so glad there were people to help (and they couldn’t have had a better family to help and offer immediate practical and kind support than my sister’s). Whew all around, yes.
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They really were lucky. And I bet they know it, too 🙂
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Yeah, I bet they do!
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Thank you Sue!
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Oh my goodness, what a traumatic incident for all. Thankfully, everyone is okay.
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Thank you, Kathy! Yes, it was thankfully an ending that allowed everyone to breath a sigh of relief. The images remain seared in many minds, but we’re ever so grateful that with an ending that is not what they’d feared they’d witnessed. Whew.
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Wow, powerful well-written story, and even more astonishing is that it was true. A miracle!
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Hi Eliza, Thank you! And … yes, every word of this is true, and I’m so SO grateful that the end of the story was what it is … Whew!
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The two photos are uncannily similar! And what a story! Holy moly!
So very happy all’s well that ends well. My goodness.
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I know!!! My sister texted us when they were in the car, on their way home, after seeing the three safely en route to the hospital in the ambulance. They were all a bit too shaken up to go on with some of the rest of their plans for the day and just headed in the direction of home, drained by the drama of the day (and for the adults, the ‘what if’ realities that, happily but oh-so-possibly, did not manifest). Whew.
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I swear the “what ifs” are the worst!
Whew, you say?
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Yep, they are … and those ‘what if replays’ that take time to fade ….
Thankfully, it is a triple WHEW with cherry on top!
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Seriously!
Yessiree!
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🙂
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