Today, I get to blog about one of the craziest, scariest things our family has experienced.
On Sunday, we had Stake Conference. We normally have church at 11, but this week it was 10am. I got up extra early and we were all ready to leave by about 9:10 so we could get the comfy seats at the stake center. We got to the church at about 9:20. There had been no tears or running around in a hurry. It was a great morning. I was very excited to be there because we were getting a new Stake Presidency. I love when new leaders are called. I always feel the spirit witnessing to me that they are good men of God who have been called. It is amazing to me to watch as the torch is passed to the next President (or Bishop or Counselor).
So we pull in to the Stake Center parking lot and Jeremy backs the suburban up to the landscape rocks on the edge of the parking lot... you know, so we can make a run for it and get outta there faster than lightning when its over. We have taught the kids to always go to the back of the car, or away from where there are other cars driving in the parking lot. So all three big kids headed toward the rocks. Jeremy was getting James out and I was getting my purse (or something... I don't honestly remember). I glanced back to see that the kids were behaving themselves. Zack is such a boy. He loves to climb. He always finds things to step on that he probably shouldn't. As I glanced back, he was doing just that. There is a dome shaped, plastic lid that is basically a man-hole cover in the rocks and he decided to walk across the top of it.
What no one realized and even now can hardly imagine, is that it wasn't secured in place. As soon as he got both feet on the lid, it flipped over like a pancake and my tiny little 6 year old boy fell in to what I could only assume was the sewer. I didn't know where it would take him. Was there running water down there? Was it deep? How in the world does that even happen?!? Faster than I could even think all of these horrible possibilities, I ran to the edge of the hole and screamed for Jeremy to save our son. I looked down and could see the top of his head and his arms splashing. The fear of him being swept away by some filthy current of sewage was replaced by the thought that he can't possibly remember how to swim.
I can only imagine that he was terrified. What was going thru his mind? Was he scared he'd be in trouble for standing on that lid? Was he trying desperately to remember the swimming lessons he had nearly 10 months ago? Did he have doubts as to whether we'd get him out or not? My heart aches to think what he might have thought. Not only that, but I could tell that although he wasn't being swept away, he was most definitely in sewage.
Within 10 seconds Jeremy had jumped in after him. Those 10 seconds and even the next several after that seemed like an eternity. The fact that Jeremy was able to go down a 3 foot diameter hole and not land on Zack and push him back under the water was a miracle in itself. He had braced himself against the walls of the tube so he would slow down enough to control where he landed. I stood there just being amazed that my husband jumped in to sewage without a second thought. He lifted Zack above his head and Zack reached his little hands up so I could pull him the rest of the way out of the hole. It was 10 feet from where I was standing to the "water" level and there was 5 feet of "water" that Jeremy was left standing in. No way was he getting himself out. So after Zack was safe on the ground, I yelled for help. I could hear Jeremy gagging because of the awful smell and the fact that he was chest deep in the nastiness. The sister missionaries were the first to come over to see what was going on. The Elders were right behind them. We got keys from the Elders and Zack, the Sisters and I went to see if there was a shower in the baptism area of the bathrooms. There isn't. So we headed back out to the parking lot.
Meanwhile, Jeremy had been waiting at the bottom of the hole for someone to help him out. I have no idea, an neither does he, who helped him out of that mess. But someone had a tie down or tow rope in their truck. They tossed one end down to Jeremy and he strapped it around his chest and the unknown men hoisted him out. When I got back from checking for a shower in the bathroom, he had just gotten out and was walking with a man named Aaron Evans toward the back wall of the church property.
Aaron lives right behind the church (to the side of the church actually), just over the wall. Jeremy took Zack and with brother Evans carrying James in his car seat, they jumped the (very short) wall to his house. I gathered Aiden and Chloe and we walked around to the Evans' house. When we got there we were welcomed into a complete stranger's house. My husband was showering with Zack in the master bathroom. Brother Evans treated us like family. He was so kind and concerned. He offered Jeremy some dress slacks & a shirt and was thinking of who in the neighborhood might have something for Zack to wear. I told him not to worry about the dress clothes. We were not going to make it to Conference. My boys finished showering and he gave them some basket ball shorts and t-shirts to wear. Jeremy and Aaron gave Zack a blessing at my request and he tossed us the keys to his car and said "Use it to get back to your car and get home and just park it here when you are done with it." We are seriously so grateful for his sacrifice. I mean, really.... they probably had to have the carpet cleaned in their bedroom after my poop covered child and husband walked across it.
I have spent many days and a few restless nights considering the endless - and possibly tragic - scenarios that could have happened instead of the relatively benign outcome we were blessed with. It was terrible. It was traumatic. But there were no unconquerable tragedies. My boy came home with us. Period. All of my children are safe and so is my husband. No one's pain lasted more than the week. The only things lost were a little bit of childhood innocence and some clothes. I'm so grateful for that.
Its been over a week now and we have been back over to the church building where it happened. In place of the plastic lid, there is now a possibly-over-kill mound of concrete with a standard metal man-hole cover on it. As well as on ALL of the other ground openings at each of the buildings in our stake. I'm grateful for the care that has been taken to prevent another event like the one we've been thru. Our Stake President went to the scene and saw what had happened there and realized, as we did, how much more terrible the outcome could have been. We are all chuckling about it now... even Zack tells people his story just to see their eyes bug out of their heads in shock.
And he swears he will never stand on anything like THAT ever again.
1 comment:
I just cry when I read or think about how scary that must have been. Seriously terrifying! I'm so grateful you guys are all ok. (btw-You are a great writer Tiffani!)
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