I was watching him from the shore of the local river. He was in up to his knees, splashing and having a good old time. All of a sudden he fell, as if someone grabbed him from under water, and he was being dragged down the river.

I swam out to him and grabbed him by a strap on his life jacket. Talking to him calmly, I said, “Relax, trust Gramma. I’m going to lay back and let the river take us for little bit. I won’t let go of you, just lay on my belly and we’ll be fine.”  

After a short while, he said, “Gramma, this is like when you take me to the pool at the gym, so I won’t be afraid”  “That’s right, it is. Glad we did it now?”  “Yeah.”

When I could no longer feel the current pulling us, I started to make our way to the shore. “Can you put your arms around Gramma’s neck? Good boy, now hold on while I get us out of here.” It was sure a relief when I could touch bottom. I walked us up to the shore, well away from the water and just sat there of a few moments. This was sure unlike anything I had experienced before. It could have turned out so much worse.

“Gramma, I have to tell you, I was really scared at first, but after a while it was kind of fun just floating down the river.” Giving him a quick hug, I told him I agreed.

“Come on; let’s find our way back to the group.”

I’m not sure how far we went down river, but we ended up on the other side from where we started. I tried calling out, but heard no one.

“Gramma, are we lost?” “Well, I’d like to think as long as we stay near the river, we’ll be ok. Let’s look at this as an adventure. Did you get hurt at all while we were in the water?” “No, I’m OK.”  “Great, you ready for a bit of a walk?” “I think so.”