My Guardian Angel Saved Me From Drowning

* Sent in by Rachel

When I was about 13 my family and some relatives visiting from Holland, travelled from Melbourne in Victoria to Hervey Bay in Queensland, on a two week road trip.

Somewhere halfway through New South Wales we’d stopped for a break and some lunch.  We’d pulled off the highway near an irrigation channel and a few of us decided to take a dip.  The fast-flowing current was pretty strong so the others quickly got out.  I was an over-confident swimmer and was sure I could easily swim against the current.

I ducked under the water and felt my body being swept quickly along with the current.  As I tried to surface I hit the top of my head against something hard and everything was dark above me.  I realized that I’d been swept under the concrete bridge that ran over the channel and there was no gap between the rushing water and the bottom of the bridge.

I bobbed back down and swam frantically against the current, trying to swim beyond the bridge.  I tried to surface again only to hit the top of my head on the bridge.  I was quickly running out of air and energy and I began to panic.  I kicked out frantically and in a last-ditch effort tried to swim free of the bridge again. 

Then I felt someone grab my hand firmly and focused my eyes on a figure in the water in front of me.  I was totally bewildering because I could clearly see the figure of a woman in a floating gown and she was lit up somehow, but she didn’t seem to actually be in the water ... she just seemed to be floating with the strong current not affecting her in anyway.  She just looked vibrant, calm and serene under the rushing water ... but I could feel myself starting to fade to darkness the longer I was stuck under the water.

I woke up on the bank of the channel downstream with no recollection of exactly how I got out from under the bridge and/or out of the water and up onto the bank.

Sitting up and looking upstream I could see my family frantically scrambling around the bridge and my mother being consoled by her sister, my aunt.  I yelled out and my Dad spun around then ran towards me.  I was still disoriented and couldn’t cohesively explain what had happened, but everyone agreed that I was safe, and that was the main thing. 

I still don’t know how I ended up on the bank some way downstream, but I do believe that what I saw under the water that day was my guardian angel and I can’t thank her enough for saving me from drowning that day.

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* Sent in by Rachel