The father

july 23 2007


Last week I read somewhere online about a man who drowned while trying to rescue his daughter.
Someone complained that no local paper mentioned a word about it.

The story popped up in my mind each day, and I tried to reach a journalist I know who could have managed to get the story published. But he was on vacation.

I told here at home about this man.

His family went on vacation and that certain morning they went to the beach.
They didn't know they were not supposed to swim there on that day, they didn't know about the currents to sea, and the underwater currents.

The son and daughter went in the water and swam a bit. Then they got caught by a current and were washed away from the shore into dangerous waters.

3 men ran and swam to their rescue.
One of the men got a heartattack. He knew about the dangers there.

The father nearly managed the girl.
He yelled to her: "Swim to the coast. Don't look back, swim, swim, swim. You can do it."

Did he know he would never be able to reach her and bring her back?
Was he already caught in an undercurrent himself and did he know he would only be able to stay above water long enough to yell, before he was pulled down?

No one knows.

The water gave back the daughter and son to land. Alive!

But the father didn't make it.


I told the story a few times to the children.

This evening one of the boys read it in the paper and saw the death announcement.

Turned out it was the father of one of the boys he went to school with.....