SwimSwam welcomes reader submissions about all topics aquatic, and if it’s well-written and well-thought, we might just post it under our “Shouts from the Stands” series. We don’t necessarily endorse the content of the Shouts from the Stands posts, and the opinions remain those of their authors. If you have thoughts to share, please send [email protected].
This “Shouts from the Stands” submission comes from Tulane swimmer Ashley Carollo.
It was Friday, August 7.
My mom and I were laying out on our dock at Gravel Lake in Lawton, Michigan, listening to music and enjoying the sun. It had been kind of cold out the few days before, so we were taking advantage of the weather, especially because it was my last weekend at home before coming back to New Orleans.
I had set a timer on my phone for when I had to go inside because I had a team meeting on Zoom later that afternoon. I remember checking my phone and seeing that there were three minutes left on the timer — in just three minutes, my mom and I would’ve gone inside.
None of my neighbors were home, so we were the only ones on that stretch of the lake. All of a sudden, we heard a loud splash that was followed immediately by screaming. My mom and I stood up quickly, wondering what had happened. The boat was about 100 feet from us, and within only a few seconds, we realized what had happened.
There were three people on the boat — a father, his son and the son’s wife. We realized quickly that, when the boat had flipped, the father was caught underneath the boat and the son was yelling for help.
My mom started yelling to my dad, who was in the house, to throw us the boat key. The three of us grabbed life jackets, got in the boat and sped over to them as quickly as we could.
When we got close enough, I jumped off the boat and started swimming over to them. The son was yelling that his dad had heart issues and was a diabetic. I remember seeing his dad’s face, so pale and exhausted. He was trying to grab onto the boat to hold himself up, but he was struggling. Neither of them knew how to swim.
Luckily, the son’s wife had a life jacket on and was able to swim to shore, so we only had to focus on getting the other two to safety. In the meantime, someone on the opposite side of the boat landing had jumped into his boat and came over to us, leaving the boat in neutral and jumping off to help. All four of us worked together to get the dad into our boat, and after we did that, my dad stayed with him to make sure that he was okay.
I then jumped back into the water to help his son. While I grabbed a life jacket and put it on him, he instinctively grabbed my forearms and used me to push himself up above the water, which everyone does when they don’t know how to swim. When this happened, I moved him onto his back so that it would help him to float and keep his head out of the water.
And then, as we were getting farther from the boat, I noticed a rope. As I’m pulling it, I realize that it’s an anchor rope and that it’s wrapped around the son’s neck. I quickly yanked him back toward the boat, swimming back far enough that the rope was really loose, untangling him to get him out of it.
He then climbed up the ladder himself and was able to sit with his dad while they calmed each other down, which was really encouraging for both of them. I then swam over to grab our neighbor’s boat while he and my mom were working on getting the family’s rowboat back to shore.
Just a few minutes before this had happened, my neighbor had come home and saw what was going on, running down the dock to call the fire department and the ambulance.
We ultimately got everyone back to shore, trying our best to keep them as calm as possible. About five minutes later, the paramedics came and checked everyone out to make sure they were healthy.
When I finally had time to think — my adrenaline was still so high — I kept wondering what I would’ve done if something different had happened, playing out every scenario in my head. But then I had to stop and remind myself that everyone was okay, and that’s what was most important.
One of the firemen pulled me aside when they got there to ask exactly what had happened. When I explained everything to him, he said that if we hadn’t been there when we were, that family wouldn’t be sitting on that beach right now. They would’ve been swimming for almost 20 minutes instead of the one minute that it took us to get to them. He said it would have been a very different water rescue had we not been on our dock in that exact moment.
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief. I felt lucky that the stars seemed to have aligned perfectly. My mind kept going back to that three-minute timer, and how such a short amount of time can truly have a life-changing impact.
You are where you’re supposed to be not only every day, but every minute. This situation really humbled me and forced me to reevaluate everything. In a year that has been so full of change and uncertainty, it was definitely a reminder not to ever take anything for granted.
