On February 28, 2008, I almost drowned in the Broward Church’s lake while mowing the grass and didn’t expect to survive. Here is my story:
I was in charge of a lawn team that took turns cutting the church’s lawn (more than three acres of grass) each week. That Saturday it was my team’s turn to mow. Knowing I was not going to be able to be there that day because of my daughter’s softball tournament, I made a plan. The Thursday before, I got off work early and headed for the church building, hoping to cut as much grass as I could. Upon arrival I quickly proceeded to open the shed housing the commercial riding lawnmower. The pre-check was quick and everything with the cutting felt routine until the ground gave way around the lake.
Mowing around the lake was always the most precarious part. You see, you want to do a good job, but you don’t want to go into the lake! All the rains in the days before made the ground softer than normal, which might explain what happened next. While carefully mowing the edge of the lake, the ground suddenly gave way. Before I could react, the back tires of the lawnmower slowly slid into the shallow water’s edge. With the engine still screaming at full throttle, I tried to drive it out. I cried out, “God, help me!” I drove the lawnmower forward. But hitting the bank, the front tires went up and over my head. The roll bar struck the bottom, and everything flipped. The next thing I knew, I was underwater, upside down, hanging from the seatbelt, and pinned beneath the lawnmower. When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the sand on the bottom of the lake!
I panicked and quickly searched for the seatbelt release button. But searching for it while hanging upside down proved impossible. Calming myself down, I tried again. But I could not find that button! I then tried to push the lawnmower over onto its side with my feet on the sand. This too was a waste of valuable energy. The 500-pound machine did not budge. Now, running out of air, I decided to stretch myself out as far as I could toward the surface of the water. I hoped to get my mouth above the surface for some air. But I could only get about three inches from the surface of the water. That’s when I realized that this situation was worse than I thought. Slapping the surface of the water near my mouth, I got out two yells, “HELP! HELP!” And then it hit me…
“It’s late in the evening. I am the only one mowing this grass. There is nobody here…nobody knows I am here…nobody heard my cry…nobody’s coming to help…I am going to die,” I thought as I slowly sank back under the tractor. Then, looking around the murky water, I thought, “Wow, I don’t have to wonder how I am going to die.” All of a sudden, an overwhelming peace settled over me. Then I realized, “Someone is going to find me strapped to this lawnmower, dead, bloated and blue. It’s not going to be a pretty scene.” I prayed, “God please don’t let whoever finds me to be traumatized by this event.” Lastly, I got one more involuntary urge to breathe, inhaled a lung full of water and passed out. Everything went dark and quiet.
The next thing I remember was hearing a voice: “Sir, open your eyes. Open your eyes, sir!” When I opened my eyes, the voice said, “Look at me.” When I looked at him, I saw a smile that said, “Oh, you’re going to be okay.” But man, I did not feel okay! I felt like I had the worst hangover ever. My head was pounding. I had no idea of what had happened. Confused, I wondered why I was coughing up all this water? Continuing to get my bearings, I noticed a police car and an ambulance. I said, “What happened? Did somebody get hurt? Do you guys need any help?” That’s when the paramedic told me, “Sir, you had an accident on the lawnmower and fell into the lake.”
At that moment, the whole situation suddenly came back to me. And I exclaimed, “You mean I am still alive! How could I be alive?” You see, my last thought had been, “This is how I am going to die.” No longer confused, I was now freaking out over the fact that I was still alive. But they just wanted to put a neck brace on me and get me on a board. Then they hauled me into the ambulance. That is where the paramedic said, “Sir, you’re going to feel a little stick now, I am going to start an IV.” I said, “YES! I want to feel a stick! I should be dead! Please go ahead and stick both arms!”
At the hospital, they took the neck brace off after taking X-rays. While lying there, my wife, Cheryl, came to the hospital. Boy was I glad to see her! I said, “Sweetheart, how am I still alive?” She said, “What? You haven’t heard?” I said, “No baby, I’ve been too busy drowning.” She said, “The horses saved you!” Then she went on to explain how the horses in the paddocks next to the lake started going berserk when the lawnmower flipped into the lake. They started whinnying and bucking like crazy. One of the horse owners, Mary, was finishing feeding her horse a bucket of oats and was minutes from leaving. Halfway through the bucket the horse reared up, ran out and started going crazy with the other horses. Mary told me later, “Richard, I have owned this horse for 20 years and have never before seen her not finish all of her bucket of oats! Even when a dog was barking at her and nipping at her legs, she has always finished her bucket of oats. So when she reared up from her half-eaten bucket and went out and started going crazy with the other horses, I had to see what was going on. So I walked around and that’s when I heard your blood-curdling cry for help!”
She looked out and saw the lawnmower upside down. But realizing she was not going to be able to do much without some help, she called over to Ron, who happened to be working on his property next door. (Ron told me later, “Richard, I am an architect. I work until 9 or 10 PM every night. I was only there that day at that time because of a dinner engagement I was having that evening with my daughter!”) Mary screamed for Ron after seeing the lawnmower in the lake, “Ron! Get over here! Someone had an accident in the lake and needs our help!” Ron dropped what he was doing, jumped over the fence and ran with Mary down to the edge of the lake. There they saw my hat floating on top of the now calm water. Ron threw his cell phone up on the shore and jumped into the water.
Not realizing I was seat-belted to the tractor, he tried with all his might to pull me off. When that didn’t work he was able to get enough leverage on the roll bar to push the tractor over onto its side. He lifted my now blue limp head out of the water and that’s when he saw the seatbelt release button. He said, “Thank God it was red!” He pushed the release button and maneuvered my unconscious body as close to the shore as he could. My 265 pound body made Ron’s 165 pound body smartly yell out, “Mary, I need some help!”
This whole time, Mary had been yelling and waving her arms trying to flag down anyone who could help. Now, who did God put there in her view? An off-duty police officer, Al and his daughter Jackie coming from a nearby park. Jackie saw Mary from across a canal and screamed, “Dad, stop! This lady needs help!” Al quickly drove over, jumped out of his car and ran to help Ron roll my unconscious body up the bank. At some point they tried picking me up, but I slipped out of their hands. This helped to knock some of the water out of my lungs and I started breathing on my own. As I was coughing and coming around, it was Al whose voice I first heard and whose face I first saw telling me, “Sir! Open your eyes!” Now I know I’m the man with the most conviction when I say, “It is really good to be here!” Years later, I read this one passage of Scripture and wept. It has come to mean more to me than ever before:
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” – Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)
This passage is more powerful to me than ever, because God was with me through deep waters and I did not drown. I pray that this story helps your faith strengthen and your confidence grow, knowing that just as God heard my short prayer, “God help me,” so he hears every whisper of our heart. I pray you understand, as this passage goes on in verse 4 to say, “I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.”
Shortly before this accident, I had an unforgettable dream. I dreamed I was sitting on a corral fence watching horses run around. A grey horse slowly came up to me, gingerly took my hand in her mouth and started shaking it slowly up and down. I thought to myself, “Wow, this is really cool! She’s shaking my hand.” Then I woke up. I don’t claim to understand it fully. I only know that a grey horse helped save my life—and a grey horse visited me in a dream before it happened. Rasha was a grey Egyptian Arabian. Sadly, she died two weeks later. I pray one day, I will see Rasha again.
