Three Brushes with Tragedy, Touching the Thin Veil Between Life and Death

Last night as I prepared a fruit snack, getting ready to settle down with Dan, my brother-in-law, and my sweet wife to watch some of movies of Dan's travels, I found some left over steak from the night before. It was not a very big hunk of steak but probably too big for one bite. I tried to take a bite of it, but it was too tough. So I chewed the whole thing and chewed. When it was finally soft, I swallowed. Instantly, it lodged in my throat. I couldn't breathe.  For several seconds I struggled alone trying to catch a breath, choking and gagging. Dan was in the next room and I tried to signal him for help. He couldn't seem to realize what I needed. Getting more and more desperate, fighting for a tiny trickle of air, I made my way back to the bedroom where my wife was sitting on the bed. She understood my signals immediately and tried to administer the Heimlich Maneuver. It gave me slight relief, but did not dislodge the lump in my throat. She called for help, and for the first time I began to wonder if I was going to make it. Dan called 911. While he was on the phone, enough of the lump passed that I was able to cough and finally catch a breath.

Nearly six months ago, right after we had submitted our papers to go on our mission and while we were waiting for our call, I was out for a bicycle ride on my normal route--a nearby bike trail. I had a sudden and very unexpected crash. Dazed, I walked my bike home, hardly aware of what I was doing. A short time later my wife took me to the doctor's office. As I walked into the office, i felt suddenly very dizzy and had to sit down. I passed out, awoke to find people around trying to help me into a wheel chair, passed out again, and awoke again to find myself being carted into an ambulance by EMTs. By the mannerisms and the speech the EMTs, I sensed that I was in serious condition. Later I learned that my blood pressure had plummeted maybe from severe loss of blood or maybe from a severe concussion. I remember thinking as I rode in the ambulance that I could easily have died.

As I thought about these events this morning, I remembered another one nearly forty-four years ago at a time when I was going through a spiritual renaissance in my life--a preparation for my first mission. I had dropped off some hitch hikers to whom I had given a long ride, and was on my way home. The last thing I remember is awaking and finding my car drifting into the freeway guard rail, trying to correct, and a sudden horrible spinning as my car rolled. I awoke in the hospital to the face of a CHP officer. He told me that I had been thrown from my car nearly fifty feet and had narrowly missed hitting a road sign. I was only skinned up. They had to take the Volkswagen bus away in a dump truck. Though my memories of that event so long ago are vague, I do remember the realization of how close I had come to dying.

What do these events have in common? I will speak from the way that they have affected me. They have erased the illusion that I am in complete control of my life. I am only too keenly aware of how fragile life is and how suddenly it could end. That awareness has humbled me. I know that each breath I draw comes from the grace of my Father in Heaven. The timing of these three events is also very suspect. All three have come just as I was embarking on a very important spiritual journeys in my life. It would easy to dismiss two of them to my own foolishness, but I have been foolish at many other times in my life without the same result. I have always believed that there is an Adversary working against each of us. The timing of these events has convinced me even more. I sit here very grateful to my Father in Heaven for drawing me back each time from the thin veil that stands between us and death. I am indeed grateful for each breath I draw and for the knowledge that nothing else matters much but our relationship with Him. I love Him.