When we were in high school, my friend Mike tells me a group of neighborhood friends went to Seaside for Mike’s Senior “skip” day. The water was cold and there was a rip current. Three of my friends got pulled out that day. Mike and Donnie swear they died that day. Mike tells me he heard the voice of God at the bottom of the ocean. He described it this way:
“We got caught in a rip current in 58 degree water for over an hour. Hypothermia set in and all my muscles locked up. I could not swim no more and drifted to the bottom and thought that this was an ok way to die. As I faded out I suddenly was surrounded by a bright pure white light and I became warm again, like how you feel when laying on a sunny beach in late spring and I felt the most amazing power around me and all my strength came back. Then I heard God’s voice telling me it was not my time, and to go back and tell the others.”
Mike pulled my friend Charisse out of the water that day and she collapsed on the beach.
They were all grateful survivors and lived to tell the tale.
Charisse’s father was in the Navy and was to be transferred her last couple years of high school. Her brother, Greg, was a good football player and ended up staying at my best friend’s house. My best friend’s father was the head coach of our high school football team. Greg was a year older, so he would stay and finish high school and graduate with his class…
