Stories of Kindness from Around the World

One of my most precious memories is watching my dad save a drowning girl in a swimming pool. I was probably about 9 years old. We were on vacation in Mexico and were staying at a campground that had a pool on the property. The water in the pool was so green that you couldn't see through it. There weren't many people there because the water wasn't inviting, but there was a group of local teenagers near the deep end; several boys and a girl.

They boys were trying to make the girl jump in the pool. I could tell she didn't want to: she wasn't wearing a bathing suit. She was wearing heavy, Levi jeans and boots. Then a few of the boys grabbed her and threw her in. She sank like a brick.

The water closed over her and became still again. The boys became silent and just stared at the water. Then a lady vacationer who was on a lounge chair sat up and yelled, "She's drowning! she's drowning!" My dad was sitting in a lounge chair near the deep end. The next thing I saw was my dad flying through the air; arching from the lounge chair into the pool; his glasses flying off and stuff coming out of his pockets as he dove into the green abyss.

And then the water became calm again and everyone was quiet, just staring at the spot where he disappeared. Then my dad pops up with the girl and yells at the boys to help him pull her out of the pool. I could see my dad was pumping water out of her.

Some of the boys helped the girl home and the rest spent quite a while in the pool diving for coins and handing them to my dad. I learned years later that the girl's parents had a celebration for my dad, but that was the day that my dad became my hero.