So you were kayaking, this is out of your yard like you have
access to a river or how did this work?
So our house sits up high on a hill and we have a dry Creek bed
that wraps around the property like that.
Normally it's dry, it's just rock.
But when it rains, it gets water in it.
So, you know, usually the water is like, I don't know, like
that. But that particular day, we had
been out there exploring with our son.
He had these little boats that they, the kids had made and they
were floating them down the Creek bed.
And as we came down and around, the water got higher.
And I was like, I bet I could put a kayak in that because
growing up with my dad, we would kayak the Kinneconnek River
during snow runoff. So it was kind of borderline
whitewater kayaking, and so I was comfortable with that.
So when I saw the water up like that, I was like, oh, I bet I
could put the kayak in and go down a little ways.
This Creek bed behind our house, there's an area that's widens
and it always has water in it. We call it the pool because we
would like the kids would play in it, throw rocks in it, that
kind of thing. It always had one. 3-4 feet
deep. So we made a trail from our
house to the pool. And so I was thinking I could
put the kayak in up here, maybe go a quarter mile and pull out
of the pool because then there's a trail that goes up to our
house. But it was very impulsive.
Usually I think after the fact, we realized when I did it with
my dad, he would always go out and check the.
Route. So you've done this before.
This isn't? Done at our house.
OK, All right. Growing up as a kid, I would go
on a Creek kind of similar to that.
But you know, when you're a kid, you don't realize the things
that your parents do in the background.
So dad probably always checked to make sure that there was no
trees that were down and that the, that the, the route was
clear. And so that day it was a whim.
It was like, oh, I could probably run the kayak down this
Creek bed. Normally we take the kayaks out
on like local lakes and stuff. And so we he didn't, he didn't
think it was a very good idea. He's like, I don't think it's a
good idea. I was like, oh, come on, I'll be
fine. And so I was pretty much I'm
pretty strong willed. I was going to do it so you're.
Like, pretty much, yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to argue
with you, right? Yeah, yeah.
So we went and got the kayak and brought it down.
And again, I was thinking in my mind that he would just meet me
about 1/4 mile way down, just going to be a quick little zip
and then go back and do it kind of like sledding, go down the
hill, get back out, do it again. And so we got the kayak all
lined up and I pretty much hopped in and I was gone before
he could say, hey, are are you for sure going to get out at the
trail at the pool? So I got in and and the water
was it was going pretty good at this point it was probably 5
feet deep baby. Yeah.
And and going. You took a video of her, right?
So I saw. That she, she just kind of
hopped in and sat down and I thought she was going to say,
OK, I'm going to go here and but she didn't.
She just hopped in and was like woo Hoo, it just went off.
And kind of just. Pulled me in too, like it was
just he was kind of messing with his phone and going to get his
video and I was. Like, I think I already, yeah,
you were gone. I already had it out on video.
And so I was like, well, shoot, I'm just going to go ahead and
and capture a video of it. And it turned out to be a good
retrospectively because then I knew exactly when she left.
Oh. Wow, you know.
I had, I had. I wasn't thinking about that at
the time, but yeah. So yeah, it kind of just sucked
me and I'm like, all right, I'm going as I'm going along it.
This happened very, very quickly.
I came around a corner and because I hadn't checked the
route ahead of time, I didn't know that a tree had just fallen
across the Creek. And so, and normally you can
navigate around that stuff. So I, I started to go a sharp
turn to the right and I just missed the tree and it caught
the back of my kayak, the branches and flipped it.
And again, normally that's OK. I mean, that's what happens.
You roll a kayak and you kind of go and you get back in.
But that's when I realized how fast the water really was going,
maybe like an undercurrent because the water kind of I
wasn't when I came up and I had a life jacket on, I wasn't able
to grab the kayak. It just went to like, it just
jerked out of my hand. And then the water pushed me up
a, a small sapling, maybe like that big had kind of gone like
that in the water. And so the water pushed me up
into it. So now I'm sitting in a tree and
my kayak's gone. And I'm like, OK, well, Steve
Will. When I, when I don't come out
where the path is, it goes down to the water.
He'll come back along the shoreline and he'll see me.
I was yelling for him, but the water was pretty loud.
It was, you know, roaring. And so he after, after the fact,
we realized he couldn't hear me. He couldn't hear me.
Yeah, I couldn't see, I couldn't see her, 'cause she'd gone
around a bend, so. Was the water higher than
normal? Did it rained quite a bit?
Yeah, so that that weekend we had gotten a lot of rain.
And I do we see what the total amount was.
It was like in a matter of two days.
I think we had like 12 inches. It was a crazy amount, but this
was kind of the beginning. So I had rained all night and
all morning. And so the water was up normally
again. It's a dry Creek bread.
Then when we kind of play in it and the kids playing it, it's
maybe ankle deep. That day it was probably when I
got in, it was probably 4 to 5 feet deep.
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survey. So I'm sitting in this tree and
I'm waiting for him. I'm thinking it'll probably take
him about 10 minutes to get me a row open, throw it in.
I'd grab it. When I was in the tree, I looked
across and it was maybe 10 feet to the shore.
But I was just like, as fast as my kayak went away from me, I
was like, I'm not even going to try to get into the water and
swim to that shore over there, even though it was only maybe 10
feet. Wow.
So I just sat there kind of perched in that tree and I
wasn't nervous yet. I was like, well, this kind of
sucks. I guess I'll wait for him to get
me a rope and he's probably going to be mad at me.
And because he didn't want me to go really.
When all of a sudden I heard like a, a rumbling and I looked
up and water was had come around the corner and it was it's kind
of like a maybe a dam had broken loose way up above the hill.
And it, the water was just like coming like this at me.
And I was like what? And like full grown, like trees
on the side of the Creek were like going down like this, like
we're being sucked in and coming at me logs and everything.
And I just watched it coming and it was just going like that and
it just went right over me. How long from the point you
stopped there to the point you saw that?
How long was that? Maybe 5 minutes?
So if you had put your kayak in the water, waited 5 minutes, you
would have known. Not a good idea.
Yeah, because we would have seen all the debris and there was no
debris in the water. It was just the water was moving
along at A at a good clip for whitewater kayaking.
But it was not like like a flash flood, like this was a flash
flood. And we've never seen the Creek
run like that again. Something was probably clogging
it up uphill and it broke loose because we're talking logs and
everything. So I was like one second and I
was just sitting there and then it was like, no, no, no, no.
I just remember like, no. And it just went over me.
So that began my journey down the Creek.
I don't know if you want to tell.
Kind of what? So, so, yeah, in the meantime,
Blaine loves to be outside with this.
So he was kind of had come with us just to see her head out and,
and, and all that. And so we, so after she left, I
was like, this is, this is not good.
Like I don't, we didn't talk about it.
Is the water's up high. Normally we kind of go along to
a little bit farther down 'cause we had brought the, we had
brought the kayak down to a part where it has a more gentle slope
down to where the Creek is. And then and which is like she
just on the side of the property and then it's running this way.
And so we have like, there's kind of like a Cliff that had
like a four feet part of Rockwall that we'd climb up and
our trail kind of went there, but it's closer to where the
pool was. But I knew the, the part that
was what would have been above water most of the time was now
below water and I couldn't be taking him forward.
And I just knew that I had to backtrack.
So we backtracked and I was like, well, shoot, I'm, I'm
going to drop him off the house and then see if she needs some
help because I didn't want to be dragging him along.
But the backtracking that just, I mean, that took me like 10
minutes to get him back up to the house and then run down the
trail to find her. When I got there, I'd like, I
didn't see her anywhere. I couldn't even see where the
the pool, as we call it, was. It was just like waiting.
Yeah, by that point he saw I. Just I figured, you know, if she
got in trouble, she may have pulled her boat to the side, but
there wasn't any side. So my first thought was, well, I
know that she's pretty capable. Let me just go further down.
She if she pulled off somewhere off down the road.
So I just kind of started running through the woods kind
of on the, because it, it's kind of raised up about, I don't
know, 15 feet or so at that. From my vantage point, I could
see the water. So I was running into our
neighbor's property as far as I could and just dodging trees
and, and try not to slip on stuff.
And finally made it to a point where the river kind of wrapped
around. We could wrapped around and then
went straight in front of me for a couple football field lengths
and I could just see that. I couldn't see her at all and I
didn't see any place on the side where she.
There was no embankments. There was no embankments.
Everything had the water had raised up and it was just more
like rock on this side, rock on that side, and there's just no
place for her to grab a hold. And I was like, well.
But did you know that the water was raging in your mind, or was
it just did that not? No, I think I did.
I missed seeing that surge 'cause I was probably up to the
house dropping her off when that happened.
So I come down, I didn't notice any.
I didn't notice big tree limbs at that point.
I noticed the water was just super high, but I knew that she
was pretty capable. So my my next thought was, well,
I know there is about a mile down the Creek, there's a bridge
that crosses. And so she would collect herself
and then try to pull off at that bridge.
I'd probably just get out of the bridge, right?
So that was my thinking. So I ran back to the house,
jumped in my car and then I I drove the bridge.
But of course there's no direct route 'cause we we had the go
down our Rd. down the County Road, get on the highway.
So it's about 20 minute drive get all the way back takes.
A while. Yeah, so then they get off the
highway and they go all the way down to the Creek on the other
side while I was driving. I have a a friend of mine who
lived a lot closer where that bridge was a little South of us.
So I asked him to meet me there and see if he could see.
So. And, and it was a little bit,
you know, angry at her for, for doing this and just praying that
God would keep her safe in in the midst of all this.
Yeah, because again, I think when we first set out doing
this, I just thought it would be like kind of like, again,
sledding, you know, you just go down the hill and then go back
and do it again, not realizing something would happen suddenly
like a flash flood. You know, Who would have
thought? We're kind of going on like
parallel timelines. We're not really sure at what
point was I sitting in the tree and he and my son were walking
along the shoreline when he realized I, we kind of think
that he missed that part where all that debris went by because
he went back up to the house to bring my son back up there, then
came back down. And when he came back down, he
realized the water was significantly higher and he
couldn't see the embankments anymore.
And I think that's when he realized I'm going to go down to
the bridge and see if she pulled out there 'cause that's kind of
what you do. You know, you pull off when you
can. That would be the next logical
place to pull out the kayak would be at the bridge.
But when he got there, the bridge, the waters already up to
the. Bottom of the bridge, yeah.
The bottom of the. The bottom of the bridge, yeah,
I mean, it was a low bridge. It was, it was, it was a short
bridge 'cause it went down and then past that bridge was a a
kind of like a floodplain area. And it was actually lower than
the embankment of the normal river.
So it had all flooded past the bridge anyway.
So we're now talking that the water was probably about 15 feet
from, I mean, it was up in the trees.
It was 15 feet higher than it normally was.
Because it's up in the tree line.
Well, maybe. 15 feet total. I don't know 'cause it's.
So yeah, I don't, I don't really know.
So basically when the water washed me out of the tree, the
flash flood came. It washed me.
What were you holding on to? Were you holding on to something
there or you just kind of? Like when the, when all the
debris and stuff crashed into me, I mean, I, I, it was so
powerful. It was before I was just kind of
sitting in the tree, you know, hanging on branches and stuff,
just kind of perched on there. When it hit me, it was like
getting hit by, I mean, I just feel like someone just shoved me
and I got washed a mile and a half down the Creek.
The Creek kind of meanders all through Mark Twain National
Forest and eventually empties out in the Missouri River.
So what was happening was when that all crashed over me, it was
just like all bubbles. And I mean, it was just total
chaos. And I, I didn't even know what
to think at first 'cause I, I couldn't even surface.
I was caught in everything. I finally came up and I was just
trying to grab at tree trunks that were all around me, like
big branches and stuff that were were in the water.
But when I would grab at one it would just RIP out of my arms
like it was so powerful. I could not.
I couldn't believe how powerful the water was.
And then I would bump up against another tree trunk and I'm like,
if I can just get my arms over it and float on it, but then
another tree trunk would smash me in between the two and it
would knock my wind out. Luckily I was wearing a life
jacket so I realized I can't hang on to anything and I'm
going over rocks and boulders. And I mean, I didn't realize at
the time I was getting just beat up if.
You hadn't had that life jacket on.
What would that have? Been Oh, I'd be gone like I
think you. Probably could have hit your
head on a rock under the water or something.
Right. I mean, who knows?
I mean, I could be one of my big injuries was as I was going
along, there was a another tree that had fallen across the Creek
and there was about this much gap between the water and the
tree trunk and I saw it coming. They said the water was going
about 15 miles an hour and you know, if you got a life jacket
on, you're not going to be able to duck on it.
So I just kind of held onto my life jacket and I was like, this
is going to hurt. And this went right into the
tree and when I hit, it sounded like something squishing, kind
of like if you were to cut a frozen chicken breast with a
knife. It's like a sound.
And it hit me right here. And then I came out the other
side and I was like, I wonder if I'm bleeding 'cause I knew it.
It got me good. That right there should have
knocked me out like that should have knocked me out and that
should have been the end right there.
Like I don't know how that didn't as hard as I hit that
tree. So but I kept on going and at
one point I got sucked into because again, we're probably up
in the middle of the tree line at this point.
I was about about that high and I got sucked into branches
underwater. It just pulled me down
underneath and I was like just thrashing, trying to get the out
of the branches. And I just remember seeing
bubbles and I didn't know if I was upside down right side up.
It was just complete. I was completely disoriented
underwater and things just started to almost like be in
slow motion. I was just going to ask you that
everything was in slow motion. It was like I was thinking all
of these things. I was like, I just felt so sad,
so sad that my kids weren't going to have a mom and that he
was going to have to raise them without me.
I knew I was going to die. Like at that point I was like,
this is how I go. I'm going to drown.
And then I started to think about, well, how do you drown?
Like, like this is literally how slow your, your thinking goes.
But I was like, well, I guess when my lungs are burning so
much I can't stand it. I just take a breath and that's
it. I was like literally thinking
like, what is this process? And I got to that point where I
was about ready to to take a take in the water and I popped
right back up. Wow.
Popped up and I was like, all right, here we go, let's keep
going. And I was coughing and
sputtering and, and at that point I was like, I just need to
relax. I need to quit fighting so hard.
And so I grabbed my life jacket and just pulled it down and just
tried to get my keep my head above the water and take some
slow, deep breaths. And then I would cough hard
'cause I was trying to get that water out.
Were you hitting rocks too? Olders every day.
Yeah, and I didn't realize how bad at the time, 'cause I wasn't
really feeling anything. I think it's like adrenaline.
I wasn't feeling any pain. Even when I smashed into that
tree, I didn't feel it. Plus the coldness of the water,
probably. Yeah, it was.
The water was pretty cold, so I got a hold of my life jacket and
I just kind of like looked up in the sky and it wasn't raining at
that moment. Had been just pouring before and
I saw this bird just kind of slowly hovering or like soaring.
And I just I was like, I felt so small in that moment.
I just felt so small and insignificant, like I'm just
this small human in this vast world.
Like that's my thought process at the time.
I just felt small and I still didn't think I was going to make
it because I didn't see a way out of this.
The water was so powerful. There was still a ton of debris
around me. I was going around bends and
curves, so I was just like, I just need to relax and try to
keep my feet down downriver. So once I relax, I kind of
started going over the rocks and stuff more easily.
And yeah, I saw that bird and I just was like, wow, this is I'm
just going to die out here in the middle of nowhere and you
know, life's going to go on all around me and the birds are
going to fly around and it. I mean, that's my thought
process was so strange, but so I'm going along and now that I'm
facing, I can see my feet above the water and I'm watching where
I'm going. All of a sudden I see this sheer
rock Cliff. Oh man.
And the water hit it and turned at like 90°.
And so when it hit that rock Cliff, half the water went up on
this embankment and half of it kept going.
I didn't have time to think about, you know, what I was
going to do. I wasn't going to.
You know, I was like, well, here we go, let's see what happens.
And I hit it and my body decided to go on the half of the water
that went up on the embankment. So all of a sudden, like in a
split second, I hit that wall and I was on my hands and knees
on on ground, on ground. What?
And I was just like, OK, I'm alive.
I got to get out of here. So I start crawling.
I again, I wasn't feeling pain yet.
I was were. You checking yourself like for
injuries or you're. Just like I was just like in
full blown panic mode, like now I was screaming.
And again, I was out in the middle of Mark Twain National
Forest because our house kind of borders it.
And that's just a huge forest wildlife area.
And so I didn't really know if I was going to find anyone, but I
was like, I just, I just started screaming for anyone.
And I, I was kind of going through the wilderness and I
found a barbed wire fence. And I was like, OK, if I follow
this barbed wire fence, I'm going to find a house.
So I'm going along and I see a big open pasture.
There's no more trees. So I'm like, OK, if I cross the
pasture, I'm going to find a house.
So I go underneath the barbed wire fence and right as I stood
up, I, the ground started rumbling, like vibrating.
And I was like, and all of a sudden these black Angus cows
come running up over the hill. I'm like, great, I survived
this, this flash flood and now I'm going to get trampled by
cows like this is how I go now. And so I just start.
The first way was way cooler and.
I know nothing about it. So I'm just like screaming wave
my arms, like go away. And they kind of were just like
looking at me and went down the hill.
But I thought that was a good sign at least maybe there's
someone out here, a house or something.
And so by now I'm shivering like the temperature started to drop
and it was now in the mid 40s. How much time had passed, you
know? We think maybe 15 minutes.
From when you got swept away or? Well, got in the Creek and I was
in that tree within 5 minutes and I probably sat in that tree
for another 5-10 minutes and that water washing me down a
mile and a half maybe it lasted maybe 5 minutes like it it was.
That's a long time to be. Right.
Yeah, but it goes so much faster than it feels like at the time.
So we're talking 1520 minutes. I was probably.
So now I'm in the middle of a pasture, we're probably talking
20-30 minutes, but the rain starts coming and it's driving
rain like torrential downpour. And I'm shivering so hard,
probably adrenaline and still wasn't feeling any pain yet, but
I could still walk. And so I, I crossed the pasture,
come up over a hill and I see this barn like it's almost like
a shack. It's just a tiny little barn,
metal siding. And no, I think like wood, wood
siding and a metal roof. And I was like, I just got to
get out of the rain and collect myself to figure out what I'm
doing here. I got to get warm and freezing
cold. And so the the barn door was
kind of open to crack. So I was able to get in.
And when I got in there, there was like a tractor or something.
And I mean, it was dirt floor. It was really just some kind of
tool shed probably. But there was a tarp in there.
And I was like, oh, OK, here we go.
So I wrapped that around me and I was like, I just got to get
warm. I'm just going to rest for a
little bit and try to warm up and then I'll go, I'll keep
going. So I got into a ball on the dirt
floor and had the trying to keep some like of my heat in there.
And that's the last thing I remember for 4 1/2 hours.
You were there for 4 1/2 hours. I I I finally was unconscious
for 4 1/2 hours. I.
Just you just passed out like, Oh my gosh.
Well, I remember it was like I was just going to rest.
I was like, I'm really tired. I'm I need to warm up.
So I'm going to just get in a ball and try to conserve my heat
and keep my heat trapped in here and try to dry off a little bit.
And then I was out. Let's go on.
I don't remember anything. I, I was shocked later when I
found out it was 4 1/2. I couldn't believe it.
So what's the next thing you remember?
Well, well, I I'm going to interject my part because.
Cause a lot happened in 4 1/2. Hours so so after that you know
you know I got down to the river with my friend Derek and we saw
that the the water was just way higher and this like this is you
know it was very evident this is way out of my control.
I can't manage this anywhere I need to call 911 so so I just I
left him there and I didn't have any signal down there by the by
the Creek so I had to drive back up to the edge of the highway
called 911. They directed me to the the
rescue services people and and finally got hold of the the guy
who's gonna kind of manage the rescue operation and so he do
you remember his name? No, OK, so he told me to, you
know, got my information to what happened, what time she left.
And then he told me just go home and he would come to me and kind
of run the thing from there. So I can, you know, drove back
home and kind of got in some some dry clothes and he he got
there first. He kind of reminds me of the
actor Neil McDonough. And I don't know, he's, he's the
very stoic guy, bleach blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, plays
a good villain. Anyway, so he, he showed up, he
asked, he sent me his phone number, asked if I could add any
recent photo of her. And so I sent him a picture and
I'll send him the the video which had the timestamp when she
left. Is it like 114 or something?
Something like that, Yeah. So then I said OK, we're going
to get things coordinated. He asked me if there was a
access to the Creek and there was a road kind of about 1/2
mile from her house that went down to it.
They can get a boat in and so then as I'm seeing there,
there's a couple of the rescuers show up.
I think a fire truck was there and a couple other trucks.
And so it was just a lot of waiting around.
You know, I called some people to pray and, and my mom was
actually staying with her 'cause she just had her knee replaced
like 2 days before. So she's hanging out, which is
great to have someone to watch the kids while I was out doing
what I had to do. But but yeah, it's just a lot of
just worrying and trying to figure out, you know, what's
happening. And, and I was kind of surprised
how fast time passed during that time because, you know, you're
just waiting. And so it seems like it takes
forever. But in retrospect, it didn't
seem like it was that long. But my friend Derek called me.
He actually had volunteered to help the searchers and they're
going up and down the river. And he told me they had found
her kayak washed down like 2 miles down or something like
that. What was that like for you when
you got that call? It was.
It was weird. I hadn't.
Hadn't they ever given up hope quite yet?
I mean, I was still though I was, I was still like maybe 25%.
She's going to make it. She could make it. 75% probably
not, you know, As for. Optimistic person Yeah, I'm a.
Glass half of a person. She's a kind of a glass half
empty. So yeah, they're going to, you
know, I'm not going to know till I know, but tell.
Them what you heard in the garage though?
Oh, so one of the times when he called me out to the, the truck,
he and he was like at the foot of our drive, but he was just in
his truck mansion, everything. So I went out there and he had
asked a couple questions. When I come back in, there's two
of the volunteer people. 1 was like a young pimple face guy and
a very young, very young. And then another girl was a
little bit older, maybe in her 20s.
And I heard him say to her, it's like, yeah, they're switching
this from a rescue to a body recovery.
And so and then like, she saw me walk in, was like, what are you
doing, 'cause he, 'cause he didn't see me.
He. Didn't see him and so he
basically said they. Just kind of stopped and didn't
say anything, just kind of walked past them and so that's I
was getting more. Worried.
Was that like the first time you really?
Really. No, I was, I was worried that,
you know, just having them say it out loud was like made it
more serious and. 'Cause once they found my kayak
and I wasn't in it and so much time had gone by, they had
switched the status from a rescue to recovery at that
point. And so then and then finally
maybe an hour or so later, the guy text me and but the the way
he texted me, he was kind of ambiguous.
He said we found your wife, come outside and like.
Wait, what? Yeah, and I was like you.
Want me to tell my part now? Well, so yeah, so.
So then I have to get out there, You know, I had basically had to
square my shoulders. Like, this is it?
This is the bad news like. Oh, you, you're thinking we
found your dead. Wife.
Yeah, we found her. They just didn't.
She didn't say her condition. He just said we found her.
Found your wife. Come outside.
So I so I square my shoulders like I'm preparing for bad news.
And I come out there and he's like, we found your wife.
She's OK, She's hypothermic. She's an ambulance.
We're taking her to the hospital.
I don't know. I'm thinking like, but she's
alive like. How many hours is this now?
So this was 4 1/2. Hours.
So back to the barn, I there was there was a loud boom of Thunder
that startled me awake. So I was out and I just startled
awake and the rain was just driving on the top that metal
roof. It was so loud and, and I was
shivering so hard it, it felt like my bones were breaking,
like I've never, ever shivered that hard.
And I, I just started sobbing like I don't know what to do.
I don't know where to go, I don't know where I'm at.
The thought of going out in that torrential downpour with as cold
as I am, I'm starting to hurt a little bit.
Like I hadn't stood up yet. So I didn't really know and I
just all of a sudden just clear as day, like you and I talking,
I hear get up and walk. If you don't walk, you won't
walk again. Like clear as day, just all
around me. It was a man's voice and I'm a a
woman of faith. So I just immediately recognize
that's God. And I wasn't surprised by it.
Nothing. I just started talking.
So I just I remember I just tears streaming down.
I said, God, what do I do? What do I do?
And right then on the metal roof, I don't know if you've
ever been in a building with metal roof when it rained so
loud. So it was like, and it just
stopped. It just stopped.
It didn't slow down. It just was like, and so I
almost kind of started laughing. I was like, OK, I, I guess I'm
going to walk like I got it. I hear you loud and clear.
I'm walking. So it was just wild.
And so I go out the barn and I stagger maybe 30 steps out of
the barn and I'm up a hill and I can see the Creek down below
flooded. And there's a rescuer all
dressed in red going along the shoreline because they were
looking in the shoreline. And I start just screaming for
him, but he couldn't hear me because it was so loud.
The the. Water.
Yeah, and right then he tripped and fell.
And as he went to get up, his gaze went up the hill and he saw
me. But if he hadn't tripped right
then, he would not. He he told me later, there's no
way he would have gone and looked in the barn 'cause they
were, they were looking in the shoreline.
Kayaker found in barn right? Right.
Quarter mile up a hill, right? And so if I hadn't gotten up and
walked like that voice told me to do right then I would.
His name was Brandon. I Brandon would have missed me.
And if he hadn't tripped right then and looked up, he would
have kept going and I couldn't have gotten to him.
So he comes running up the hill and I'm just hysterical at this
point and I'm just so relieved that someone found me and I was
shivering cold. So I again, I can't reiterate
enough how bad I was shivering. I'm cold right now and I feel
shivery. But that was that was some
intense cold. And so he had a walkie-talkie
and he radioed someone who is also out on the Creek and he
came up and it was just kind of a flurry of activity at that
point. They got, I feel like it was
like a four Wheeler 1st to Get Me Out to the road and then they
moved me to a truck. And in the truck they were
trying to get all my clothes off and get a blanket on me to start
trying to warm me up. And those first responders were
on either side of me and they were putting Ivs in both arms.
They were trying to get an IV in the truck in the truck.
As we're going down these gravel roads, we found out later some
of those gravel roads were kind of flooded.
So it was a big truck and they were trying to Get Me Out to the
main road where an ambulance could get to me because again,
the bridge was flooded, the gravel roads were flooded.
And so they eventually, I was kind of in and out of it at that
point. I just know there's just so much
activity, people carrying me from one vehicle to another.
And then I get in the ambulance and they start putting heated IV
fluids in me. And at that point I was just
like, OK, I'm safe now. I'm exhausted, I'm tired now I
can just sleep. I, I just, I could not stay
awake. Like my eyes felt so heavy.
And so I was going off to sleep and I could hear them.
They were slapping my face. Like, don't fall asleep.
Yeah. Nicole, stay with us.
It's the worst thing you can do. They were like, stay with us,
stay with us, Nicole. And I'm thinking, well, I'm not
dead. I'm, I'm right here.
But when then I heard someone say we're losing her, we're
losing her stop, stop that bag. And later on I, I found out that
they were warming me up too fast, which was actually putting
me into shock because if they rewarm you too quick, it can it
puts your body into shock. And so they had two bags of
heated fluids going in. So what they were saying was
stop one of those bags of heated fluids, but they sounded
frantic. And I and I again, I could hear
everything. I just couldn't open my eyes.
And I was like, wow, they think I'm dying.
I got to get my eyes open, but I was trying so hard and I was
getting really annoyed because they kept slapping my face and
like jostling me and I, I was like, quit slapping my face.
I'm right here. And so I was like, well, they'll
quit slapping me if you can just get your eyes open.
And so I was able to kind of get my eyes open and they were
asking me questions and I didn't really get scared until I heard
them say we're losing her 'cause it was, it was just so surreal.
I was there, but I wasn't. And so they get me to the
hospital and again, it was just another flurry of activity and
they were rolling me side to side kind of assessing like my
injuries. And I ended up, it's an absolute
miracle. There basically wasn't an inch
of my body that wasn't bruised. I looked like I had been, you
know? I saw the pictures, it's pretty
incredible. I broke my nose when I hit the
tree and then I had a pretty bad concussion.
Like the concussion was bad enough that it affected my
speech for a good two months. I didn't, I didn't go back to
work because I couldn't talk. So what I would do was it would
almost be like. Just certain words like we had
to let the the dag outside and sit with the dog and certain
things like that and. It would come out completely
wrong. And to this day still, if I'm
tired, my speech will be affected.
Like I'll say like vowels will change or I won't be able to
think of the word. So my speech was really
affected. My vision was affected for a
couple months, like bright lights, like I couldn't, I was
really light sensitive. My calf had kind of like
compartment syndrome. It wasn't full blown.
They were keeping an eye on it, but it was basically it's a
crush injury. So a rock or something crushed
my calf. Oh.
My. Gosh, at the hospital, I think
we they wanted to keep me, but I was, I was leaving AMA and I was
there for several hours, but I had to get home to my kids.
I knew that this had to have been really hard on them and.
Did you spend the night in the hospital?
No, like I was like a man again. I'm very I'm very hard headed,
strong willed. Sounds like it will.
They say healthcare workers make the worst patients.
Yeah. We really do 'cause I I was
trying to. You're assessing yourself and to
made the critical decision to get up and walk out.
And I was trying to rationalize with the doctor.
I'm like, I know what to look for if, you know, my head injury
gets worse, you know, if I start getting confused and.
I think they did actually check out your leg a second time and
then they said OK you can go. Home.
Make you be AMA technically. And, and being a, an
occupational therapist, I know like what compartment syndrome
is. And I was like, I know when to
come back. I basically told them my
rationale was there's nothing you can do for me here that we
can't do at home. And so I just wanted to get home
and so you can talk about when you got to the hospital or.
Yeah, since it's the hospital I work at and I had my badge in my
car, so I tried to, like, sneak into the ER just to try to find
her. But one of the nurses
intercepted me. And it's like, hey, Sir, can I
help you? And it's like, Dang it.
So he scored me back to the waiting room until they finished
assessing her in the drinking room and.
He thought he could get to me sooner than having to wait for.
A long I'd had my scrubs on, I probably could have pulled it
off, but I didn't. Just had street clothes so oh
man. So that was a huge relief just
seeing him come in and I kind of like, I think there's a picture.
I was like giving him a thumbs up.
I just, I wanted him to know. I knew I didn't know, but I
figured he'd be mad at me. I was like, please don't be mad
at me. I know I should have listened to
you. I shouldn't have gone in and.
Definitely being happy and angry at the same time, but I was, I
guess, more relieved that she was still alive.
Yeah, for sure. It's like happy, happy
anniversary. You're still alive.
Yeah, 'cause our anniversary was like the next.
The next day. What?
Yeah, it was like 2 days before our anniversary that that night
it was like the 29th and our May 1st is our anniversary.
Oh man, yeah. So that was a good, that was a
good reunion. It was just, you know, I and I
had a lot of guilt. I know when I was caught under
that tree, just thinking about my husband having to raise our
kids without me and my kids not having a mom.
And so I, I dealt with a lot of guilt also afterwards, just, you
know, putting them all through that, you know, for four, half,
five hours. You know, we always think of
what we we should have, could have, would have done.
And my thinking at the time was I haven't whitewater raft since
I was in high school. This looks great.
You know, my dad has passed away.
And so I was just feeling nostalgic and I, the water
looked familiar to me. I, I figured I would just pull
in at where the trail comes from our house down to the Creek.
All that stuff seemed irrational to me at the time.
And but it wasn't, it wasn't planned out.
I didn't check the route. And so I was beating myself up
about all the dumb things I did and how irrational it was and.
Well, have you, had you ever seen the water do that before
from there? Yeah.
I mean, how would you have known, right?
And that's just it. When I looked at the water, it
was totally doable. Like you just for sure.
You know I mean. It's definitely rained that hard
before, but usually we don't get down into the Creek when that's
happening. Yeah, we didn't really know,
like what? What?
It was right? And, and again, yeah, I was,
even when I was stuck in that tree, I was like, oh darn it,
he's going to have to get a rope.
And I was totally calm because it was just like, I just didn't
think it was smart to go the eight to 10 feet across with the
water going. It's it's the current was a
strong underneath. And when my kayak tipped and I
realized how much it was, how fast it was going.
So even in the tree, I wasn't, I was just like waiting.
And I wasn't thinking the worst. Yet it wasn't until I saw that
water coming at me. You hadn't broken any bones
other than your nose. You broke your nose, right?
You mean ever in my? Life no no it from this event.
Oh yeah, yeah, I broke my nose. So back up to when you hit that
log, you said you heard a squish.
Was that your nose? It was like the car was
squishing down and I, I had a laceration and they're like,
well, we're not going to stitch it 'cause that skin is so thin
right there. And.
It's like a butterfly thing on it.
Right. But my mother-in-law again, was
staying at our house because she had her knee replaced two days
earlier. And the home health nurses that
were coming and and working with her were actually the company I
work for. Oh my gosh.
And so the day after it happened, or two days after the
nurses came to work with my mother-in-law, and that
laceration just kept splitting open.
I'm like, this is never going to because you can't put a stitch
in it. So she actually put some glue
and, like, glued it and put a butterfly bandage on it.
But yeah, that squish sound was just my nose.
Wasn't it she? Could make it click.
Yeah, For a while, for months, it would click.
Like if I sneeze or something, my it would click.
And so we've over the months after this happened and even the
years our family has processed through this together, and we
really see that day in those events as like a metaphor for my
life. Up until that point, my life had
been kind of chaotic. I dealt with depression, was
going through some pretty heavy episodes of depression leading
up to it, and I had lost my father and to suicide.
And so that was a big trauma in my life.
And so to deal with all of that, I was like trying to do self
help books and, you know, depression medication and
counselors and nothing was really working.
I felt like I was just kind of spiraling and the Creek almost
seems like a metaphor. My life, you know, you go down
life like a stream, ups and downs and twists and turns and
the debris in the water was kind of like the life lines I was
grabbing for like the tree trunks and the branches and
everything was getting ripped away from me.
Nothing was saving me. I was trying so hard to save
myself, but I couldn't save myself.
And it wasn't till I like calm down and just let you know, let
it take me that things got better.
And then when I was in that barn and I heard God say, it was
almost like I had to get laid flat out on my back and have
nothing left for me to hear God say, you know, listen to me get
up and walk. And so afterwards, like, I
walked around with a dumb grin on my face for weeks afterwards
because I just, everything just seemed so amazing, so awesome,
like life was so good because I survived.
And I heard God, you know, I, I heard him and everything seemed
lighter. Everything seemed doable.
Everything. I didn't need all this.
I didn't need a counselor. I didn't need medicine, I didn't
need books. And so my faith was renewed.
Steve had always wanted to go on a mission trip with me 'cause he
had gone in high school. And I was like, yeah, but we've
got kids and we've got a job and just, you know, oh, things could
go wrong on a mission trip. And so, like a month after the
accident, we were in church and they announced a mission trip to
Honduras. And I was like, let's go.
Like, what do I have to be afraid of?
You know, I this Creek almost killed me.
So. And Honduras is a very dangerous
country. But I was like, let's go.
My first mission, mission trip. Let's do it.
And so we did. We went a few months.
Was the next year I. Think was it the next year we
decided to go a few months after the accident, I just didn't have
fear for things anymore. Like life didn't seem
overwhelming and I just had this new appreciation for everything
in my life. Like I had a pretty good life.
And again, I think you have to get into a point where you're
you have nothing or you're completely vulnerable.
And maybe that feeling of weakness when I looked up and
saw that bird and felt small, I feel like I almost needed all of
that to wake up. In a sense, it's kind of like
what the Thunder did. I woke up and heard God get up
and walk or you won't walk again.
And it was just so profound and surreal and one of the things we
wondered. My son was 8 at the time and
they got kind of worried about him because he kept just looking
out the the living room window, out our living room window, kind
of looks down towards the Creek. And my mother-in-law asked him
at one point, are are you OK, Lane?
Are you doing OK? And he just very nonchalantly
was like, yeah, he said, I heard God in the Thunder.
And he said Mom's coming home. And.
He wasn't worried at all. He's like, yeah, God told me
Mom's coming home. And it wasn't a few minutes
later and Steve got that text that said we found your wife.
And we almost wonder if the Thunder that woke, that startled
me awake is maybe what he heard at the same time.
Because it was, you know, the timing was kind of in line with
that because they, you know, once they saw me, they radioed
right away that we found. So there was kind of just a
spiritual renewal in our whole house, my kids.
And like Steve, I mean, you prayed a lot during that.
Yeah, I remember, I remember just like when I was driving out
to, to that bridge and I was just, you know, I was kind of
upset, yelling, get hurt and I was just praying to God.
And I was just like, God, I know this is, this is out of my
control, but I just want you to know that even if things don't
work out and I, I don't get to have her that like my, this is
not going to destroy my faith because my, my faith has to be
solid no matter what happens. So you know that that was like
kind of my profound thing in the midst of this, because you know,
a lot of people, they would, they would go through that and
they'd just be like, well, how I got them done with you, You let
this happen. And you know, and I'm sure God
didn't want, doesn't want anyone to die, but life is what it is.
Sometimes it's a key. Key has to get our attention,
though. Yeah.
So, yeah, it, it was a horrific experience and we learned a lot
of lessons, but our family grew in our face together and we
started going to church pretty regularly.
And we went on that mission trip and actually I've gone twice
now. I I didn't know that you guys
were Christians when you came out here, so that's awesome.
I'm a Christian. Yeah.
That's great. So.
Yeah, that's awesome. And I think a lot of people say
I'm a Christian. That's kind of how I was.
You know, we went to church not maybe consistently and kids went
to Sunday school, but this was like a profound awakening.
Like God revealed himself and to our family, like not just to
make our entire family. And my daughter during that
time, she was really upset. She would have been, she was 10
and she was really upset and crying.
And she picked up a book that I had called Jesus Calling.
Is that what it's called? And they're like daily prayers
or something. And she sat on the couch and she
started reading it and she said, mom, every page I turned said
that God is with you. He will take care of you and
like every page. And she just started to calm
down and feel OK too. So my 10 year old had felt God's
presence that day. My 8 year old felt God's
presence that day. My husband felt him and I heard
him. Wow.
So it was clear that he wanted us to all hear him.
Wow. For.
Yeah. Have you been kayaking since?
About two months later I don't do that kind of kayaking
anymore. We went out on the calmest glass
lake where we live and I have some post traumatic stress.
Like I've gone canoeing on some pretty fast water and I get that
feeling of. Well, like the next year we
went, we did a family vacation to Mount Rushmore and we also
did some hiking around there. There was like AI don't know the
name of the trail, but there's a lake at the top and you went
down this gorge and went back around.
I was like an 8 mile loop. So we took our kids 'cause
they're. That was the first time I'd
heard rushing walk. And I kind of stopped and I had
that feeling in my stomach like, I'm going to be sick.
Like Sylvania Lake, is that right?
In Sylvania maybe? I was here.
It's a Sylvania. I've been there.
And then the next year I think we went whitewater rafting.
I had 0 fun. It was I did it for the family.
They were all excited about like and I figured well I'll be safe
because these are experts in this boat.
But I just clung on for dear life the whole time and I I had
no fun. Kids loved it.
You know, some people wouldn't even do that, so you know.
When we have a hard rain and I hear the Creek out on our
property, to this day I don't like the sound of it.
Like I'll just shove the door, open the door.
Oh, the creek's going. Shut the door.
We went on a backpacking trip this last couple weekends ago
and there was some cold water crossings that were difficult to
cross. It kind of brought back.
Yeah. I bet I get cold really easily
and shivering is is not a thing I like at all.
It it almost is physically painful for me when I shiver
because. Yeah.
Wow. So I ask everybody this and I, I
think I'm, I'm, I bet I already know the answer to this.
But if you could go back in time and pull that day from ever
happening out of your life, would you do it?
I, I would say no. Initially I would say yes, but
that's just more it's like wanting to avoid hard things.
But then it just kind of just reflecting on how much it's
changed all of us, but especially her.
She's just had, she was just a lot more joyful afterwards and
just had more thankful to to be alive.
She had a lot to live for. You know, God's basically not
would not change it. No, because God's not done with
you yet. So literally, literally pulled
you out of the water. Almost like Jonah didn't spit on
dry land, you know? So you you would you don't
regret that day. No, no, because it's like you,
you go through life and you get certain amount of scars, like
your scars, like they tell you what, you've been part of your
story. If if you didn't go through hard
things, you wouldn't be that person you are now because
you're always better on the other side of it.
Yeah. And I would probably echo that.
Like, would I have, you know, hindsight?
Yeah, I would have made a lot of different choices.
I have again, guilt for putting them through that, but the
experience in itself, I don't know if I would have ever heard
God like he. He picked that opportunity for
me to hear him. He needed to get my attention
and I don't think I was he had my attention any other way.
It probably took something like that for me to get my life on a
a good track. So for that, I'm thankful for
that opportunity to be that close to him, I guess.
Wish it hadn't been that close to death.
Actually. It's I've actually told God
before, like, OK, I don't need another Creek.
I hear you. I'm listening.
I don't need. I got this because I don't ever
want to go through something like that again.
But yeah. I don't.
Yeah. I I think that's amazing.
It's pretty awesome. It's cool.
We've had you, you know, several years to just kind of go through
and just see piece it all together, all the things that
happen like the timing. Oh, yeah.
That was one of the things, like I was kind of kicking myself for
not calling 911 sooner. You know, I, I probably should
have recognized that and started trying to manage it myself.
But then I reflected upon it, like just the way that, you
know, she got out of that barn when she did.
And 'cause if if she didn't wake up when she did and I didn't
call when I did and get the guy started when I did that, he
wouldn't have been there when she came out.
So like the timing just worked out so perfectly.
That right. It is.
So it's like, you know, I'm, I'm, you know, if, if God's at
work in this whole thing, no matter when I called, he was
going to work it out. So yeah.
So I'm just going to have to sit with that.
Well, you got an incredible story and I'm sure somebody
listening is probably hearing it from that metaphorical state,
and hopefully they're hearing what God's telling them too.
So that's pretty awesome. Appreciate you guys being here.
Thanks for sharing your story. Thank you.
Thank you very much.