Story with a Happy Ending

This morning started like most Saturday mornings. Things might have been a bit more quiet than usual as all the kids were out and about on various teenage activities. My to-do list was long, but I was slowly working through it.

Out of the blue I received a phone call. The caller explained that he was from some medical service...blah-blah-blah. I was already preparing a response of not being interested in whatever he was selling when some of his words broke through my dense preoccupation to inform me that they had pulled my sixteen-year-old out of the water from a near drowning and they were on the way to the hospital.

It took several moments to process what he was telling me. This son had gone with our neighbors to participate in the Kokopelli Triathlon. My neighbor had expressed concern over the swimming portion of the race, but she assured me that my son was in great shape and he'd be fine. I hadn't a moments premonition that there was something wrong. In fact, I had just sent him a text wishing him well in the race. My mind was now trying to process the facts that he was 5 hours away and utterly alone. (Our neighbors had no idea that my son was in trouble as they were all participating in the race.)

Here's today's miracle...another dear friend/neighbor happens to split her time between two homes; one here, one in southern Utah. Yesterday she was across the street. I saw her with my own eyes. We made plans to get together for lunch in the next day or two. However, late last night, she decided to return to St. George. This morning, my panicked phone call found her ready to drop everything to go to my son's aid. She met him at the ER and stayed with him until the doctors checked him out.

Angels are all around us. Today's angel bears the name of Heidi!

My sixteen-year-old is fine. They think that someone swam over him in the frenzy of the race. He remembers that he was swimming next to his buddy one minute and the next minute he's all alone and the race is off in the distance. There's a bump on the back of his head that wasn't there when he started the race (maybe a misguided foot or elbow?) The happy news is that he's fine. Actually, he's better than fine. He didn't finish the race, but he has quite the story to tell.