I shouldn't actually be alive now... :)

[Rosemarie]

Have been thinking if I should share this , Trying to tell this page in my life the shortest way posible and convey the fear for our lives we felt. Lets leave politics aside. This is my story and what I experienced.

It is Nov 1989. There is a civil war in El Salvador. The guerrilla , the FMLN decides to launch a mayor offensive into the city of San Salvador. Before the fighting would be generally outside the capital in small towns. I do not remember how long that particular event lasted. Maybe 15-20 days fighting in the suburbs of SS. During all that time there are curfews, nobody outside from 6 pm to 6 am. Eerie silence , and then as night approached you would see planes throw hundreds of lights coming down like in small parachutes ( they have a name , it escapes me ). They are to illuminate the coffee plantations besides the suburb where I live and where the guerrillas are supposed to be hiding. Slowly coming down and moving with the breeze. A sight to see and enjoy if you did not know the reason for them.

We are sleeping in a mattress on the floor in a room between our bedroom and bathrooms and closets. No windows. After a week my parents tell me to please go home to Ecuador and I decided to take my little kids ( 3 and 1 years old )!there , but return to be with my husband.

The day I return I tell my husband the safest place in the house is a small storage room in the kitchen with 4 concrete walls and and iron door beneath the second floor. That night we start hearing the fighting very very near... we start exchanging phone calls with our neighbors. All of a sudden there is a huge explosion in our property , we hang the phone and run to the first floor. Going down the stairs there are huge windows and we see some men trying to look inside the house. It is dark ( no electricity ) and they do not see us. We run to the kitchen and my husband , a couple worked for us and Fiona our german shepherd go inside this small storage room ( maybe 6 ft x 8 ft ) as we hear the window ( huge ) break.

We hear men walking around , talking , in what felt like days. Imagen being scoped there with a dog and praying that dog does not bark. This happened around 12 at night. So we continue to hear fighting and the phone rings almost all night long. Around 5:30- 6 am we realized there is silence and we see light coming through the door. We decide to make a run for it. So we open the door and ran like crazy to the front door of the property which is like 50 feet away. As we open the door we see our neighbors with soldiers planning a rescue. Our neighbors knew something had happened to us.

We found that the big explosion we heard was the guerrillas that where in the coffee plantation that boarded our property making an opening in the wall so they can enter our property and fight with the soldiers which were outside in the streets and then escape to the forest that same way.

We closed the opening , order a new window and stayed there until before christmas when we went to see my parents and kid. Life had to continue.

Peace accords were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico in 1992.

Edit: spelling mistakes as always.

[ulli]

I must say, Rosemary, you have been through some incredible stuff. Real nightmare scenarios. I hope your life is no longer the danger zone it once was. Please stay safe from now on.

[Rosemarie]

Posted by ulli (here)
I must say, Rosemary, you have been through some incredible stuff. Real nightmare scenarios. I hope your life is no longer the danger zone it once was. Please stay safe from now on.

Ulli. Thank you. Can I say it is a little boring now. ? Sometimes I think I could use some excitement.

[ulli]

Posted by Rosemarie (here)

Posted by ulli (here)
I must say, Rosemary, you have been through some incredible stuff. Real nightmare scenarios. I hope your life is no longer the danger zone it once was. Please stay safe from now on.

Ulli. Thank you. Can I say it is a little boring now. ? Sometimes I think I could use some excitement.

I know what you mean, I also find that boredom is the other side of the coin of life.
Adrenalin rush is addictive, or maybe the addiction is more to do with the relief one feels when danger has passed.
When you feel that you now have an excuse to celebrate.
It can’t have been easy sharing that terrifying experience.

[thepainterdoug]

Rosemarie/ Im in awe of your story ! in light of it, perhaps I should remove my squirrel encounter... lol

[Rosemarie]

To tell you the truth I think with some hindsight I can say your squirrel incident was maybe more dangerous than mine. The guerrillas did not harm anybody they encounter in the other houses they enter. They just wanted a safer place from where to fight the soldiers. At that moment we did not know it off course.

Posted by thepainterdoug (here)
Rosemarie/ Im in awe of your story ! in light of it, perhaps I should remove my squirrel encounter... lol

[Bill Ryan]

And another. This is a rock climbing story, but it's a little hard to explain.

When climbing, the lead climber heads up, with their safety rope below them, not above. They periodically install anchors in cracks in the rock, when they can.

The anchors are removable metal wedges in rock cracks, attached to a karabiner (metal snaplink). The rope runs freely through the snaplink. If the lead climber falls, the idea is that their partner holds the rope, and it'll come tight against the snaplink and hold the fall like a pulley from above.

So if one's 10 feet above the highest anchor, the lead climber will fall twice that distance — 20 ft. As one climbs higher, one needs to put in more anchors (if one can!) — or else the potential fall becomes long and dangerous.

It's critical that each new anchor is wedged immovably in place. The idea is that they can be removed from above, but will just wedge themselves even more firmly with a downward pull.



~~~

Anyway. I was on a difficult climb in the English Lake District, long ago. I'd installed four anchors, so I felt pretty safe. But then I fell.

The top 3 anchors all pulled out, which isn't meant to happen. (Never happened before, or since!) I was left suspended on the 4th and last.... upside down with my cheek just gently grazing the rock ledge way below.

I was full of adrenaline, and was just fine. My poor partner, who'd helplessly watched everything come unzipped, was visibly shaking.

I never climbed with a helmet. If the final anchor had also failed, I'd have been piledriven head first into the rock below, and certainly wouldn't be here now.

[thepainterdoug]

Bill / wow, thank the heavens! I think the guy who willingly climbed El Capitan free of all ropes etc ,accomplished the most amazing human feat I have ever seen.
Few of us will ever know what its like to live on the edge of complete peril every step of our way. And he willingly did this.

Rosemarie/ in a sense I know what you mean. but the mental anguish you went thru out does my squirrel incident for sure. its what we know that frightens , not what were unaware of.

[East Sun]

In my 20's I lived in a big city in Europe. One Sat. night I went into a bar and had one drink. As I was leaving I noticed a few people standing on the sidewalk. One person near them seemed out of place somehow. I started to walk and noticed that the guy started to follow me very closely. I moved over as I walked to let him pass, he moved over behind me. I turned to see what he wanted and he stabbed me in the chest with a knife. He raised the knife again. He was holding the knife in a strange way not by the handle to bring it down or up but to stab forward, very hard to block or duck from. I could see rage in his face and fight or flight kicked in. I took off and he followed close behind. When he stopped I crossed the main street I looked down at my white shirt to see it covered in blood.

I thought I have to drive to the hospital. My car was a street away. Suddenly I felt very weak and was not walking well. I was on a back street with not many people. I asked a passer by to call an ambulance, he just kept walking . Now everything was going black and I was staggering. I grabbed on to a lamp post and slid to the ground. Fortunatly two guys came past and I stammered that I had been stabbed. They put me in the back of their car and took me to the hospital. I never saw those two guys again so I could not thank them.
I was in the hospital for 5 days. The Doctor said the wound was 2 1/4" inches deep and 2" from my heart.

You never know when your time may come, just out of the blue.

[avid]

1986, a wine tasting south of the city, got a black cab home with partner (no safety belts then), in the back having a joke, then Blackness.... Our taxi driver, on a dual carriageway at 50mph ignored out-of-order traffic lights, we were T-boned by another cab. Partner shot through window, severe facial injuries and cracked neck, I stayed inside wearing fortunately leather trousers and jacket, in the rotating cab. When the policeman said “are you okay” I said I had broken my neck, it felt so bad.
500 metres away, Major A&E, saved my life. Hangman’s fracture, c1 cracked, c2 and c3 broken.

Spent weeks with traction on a rotating bed on lambskins, and then months with halo and full body cast, pleaded to see my son, partner, was initially given 24 hours as I developed pneumonia, but my best friend physio on A&E pumped me out, so here I am, still can't sleep without adjusting my head position, my folks were brilliant, Mum retired early to look after me, my son was really shocked, this has haunted me for years - trying to make it up to them.

When my folks were in a bad way, I gave up everything for them, to make up, thankfully it was a wonderful decision, as I am back home, unencumbered by an aspergers’ torturer, free, looking up at the sky in our beautiful family garden.

Here and now!

[scanner]

I was 17 at the time this happened. I'd been courting a young lady, and we'd had a disagreement about something trivial, as you do at that age. So I left earlier than usual, around 9.45 pm. The weather was good, no rain, so good for the motorcycle I was riding. It was an Elvis bike. A penny bun for the person who knows what an Elvis bike was, I digress. On my way home, I wasn't riding fast or stupid, as one does at that age.

Unbeknown to me, in a pub Car Park, a car was being stolen, allegedly by a drunk driver. I don't know how they came to that conclusion they have never, to this day, caught anyone for their crimes against me, some 47yrs ago. I continued home down a wide sweeping right-hand bend closing into a near hairpin. I, could see the cars headlights coming straight at me, on my side of the road. There was nothing I could do to ride my way out of it. The drunk was going so fast, he hit the front of my bike head on, knocked me into the air, I came down through the windscreen of the stolen car, head first, allegedly. They had to cut me out of the car, the drunk had left me for dead. I died in the Ambulance on the way to the hospital, so they told me a week later when I woke up in the hospital. Fractured skull, broken right femur and two broken wrists. Many stitches, cuts and bruises.

I was in hospital many months, the surgeon, at that time was old school and didn't believe in plating and pinning broken bones. O natural was his buzzword. I didn't complain too much, it was a training hospital and lots of young nurser to talk too and date when I was up and walking again. The young lady I was courting visited me a couple of times and never returned, I've haven't seen her since lol.

[Bill Ryan]

[East Sun]

Posted by East Sun (here)
In my 20's I lived in a big city in Europe. One Sat. night I went into a bar and had one drink. As I was leaving I noticed a few people standing on the sidewalk. One person near them seemed out of place somehow. I started to walk and noticed that the guy started to follow me very closely. I moved over as I walked to let him pass, he moved over behind me. I turned to see what he wanted and he stabbed me in the chest with a knife. He raised the knife again. He was holding the knife in a strange way not by the handle to bring it down or up but to stab forward, very hard to block or duck from. I could see rage in his face and fight or flight kicked in. I took off and he followed close behind. When he stopped I crossed the main street I looked down at my white shirt to see it covered in blood.

I thought I have to drive to the hospital. My car was a street away. Suddenly I felt very weak and was not walking well. I was on a back street with not many people. I asked a passer by to call an ambulance, he just kept walking . Now everything was going black and I was staggering. I grabbed on to a lamp post and slid to the ground. Fortunatly two guys came past and I stammered that I had been stabbed. They put me in the back of their car and took me to the hospital. I never saw those two guys again so I could not thank them.
I was in the hospital for 5 days. The Doctor said the wound was 2 1/4" inches deep and 2" from my heart.

You never know when your time may come, just out of the blue.

Bill, It's amazing to me that you could pull this up out of the blue.

I still maintain that because we have had a "so called" "miraculous' escape that
it was angels that saved us.

[Sue (Ayt)]

Besides several slo-mo traffic close calls, there is one unusual save that I remember clearly, but to this day I have never figured out.

I have this cousin who was just a little younger than me, who I was raised closely with when I was a child. My mother got pregnant with me, then shortly after my aunt became pregnant with her. We were both the first child. But the thing is, somehow my cousin became my nemesis in those days. To me, I saw her as evil. If I had a little plant, she would snap it off. When I had a small pet mouse, she smashed and killed it with a milk bottle. She would bite me, and seemed to enjoy destroying what I loved. Sadly, I saw her as my tormentor.

One day, when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old, my cousin and I were in a swimming pool. Our mothers were chatting at a table by the pool, but not really watching. We were in the deep end, clinging to the side, when my cousin got the idea to dunk me under the water and then sit on me, well beyond any point of a fun prank. Thing is, this cousin was also quite fat, and weighed much more than me. After the initial dunk, it became apparent to me that she did not intend to let me up. In fact, she then sat on me, keeping me under the water with her full weight, no matter how I struggled to reach the surface. It became apparent to me that she did indeed intend to drown me.

And after much struggle, I became resigned that I was not going to be able to escape, and that was it. Now, this was where it got weird. Suddenly, and instantly, I was standing on the concrete at the side of the pool, looking down at my cousin who was still in the pool, who was looking up at me with a shocked look. I, too, was shocked to the core, looking down at her. Our eyes met, and then I ran out of the pool area into the house. To this day I can't remember anything beyond drowning, and instantly being out of the pool.

[raregem]

I was in the cab of a 350 truck pulling a trailer with several telephone pole logs. We were on a mountainside in California climbing the road and the trailer started fish tailing. We were pulled backwards down the mountain and started to flip over several times. About halfway down the mountain side a tree was jutting out and this where we stopped rolling. I was concerned for a moment the truck might start on fire but no. The only injury was a 3 jagged blade on a chain saw that was in the cab. It went through my jeans and leg. Minor injury on me (a few stitches) and none on the other two passengers. No head injuries, nothing.
Behind us was an off duty paramedic couple who saw the whole thing happen.
I have another mountain story for another time. Mountains are beautiful but have stressed me out when driving.
Austin has rolling hills...lol

[greybeard]

I think close encounters near death events, strengthens a person in many ways.
Through all I mentioned page one -- I have no fear of death but certainly would want to exit this world "quietly" without leaving any kind of mess for others to clear up.
So life is valued, enjoyed, lived a moment of a time, with a degree of gratitude.
My signature below is fundamental to this life.
Chris

[Anka]

Dear Chris,
Your playful and joyful spirit, in all the goodness of your soul, always demonstrates, at least for me, that in fact you are fundamental to the signature of your life and in the projection of the attraction of good thoughts.

Three years ago I was in terrible pain from the spine,
for 6 months, I fell asleep in tears of pain and sadness and several times when I fell asleep I thought there was an end.
The irony is that I was actually just falling asleep, but the feeling of ending I experienced it often enough to understand the art of living and dying.

I now serve my life in the perspective of a fantastic spiritual escape as I did not hope to feel, in a different detachment from the perception of others about life and death.
"I shouldn't be alive" should be kind of a cliché for me, because I had enough experiences near death and now I have the feeling that in fact, all my life I have trained to die, a great step, maybe I'll make it sometime.

[hohoemi]

Once when I was a teenager we were driving through the mountains with my some of my family in two cars. Up front was my uncle, who at that time was known to drive like a maniac (he was in some accidents because of this but survived all without lasting damage). Following was a car driven by my granny, more of a sedate sunday driver, with my cousins and myself in it.

For some unknown reason my granny was trying to keep up with my uncle's car up that winding mountain road, including overtaking various cars despite the narrowness of the road and a complete lack of visibility because of all the curves. At some point, we suddenly found ourselves overtaking a truck - with a second truck heading directly for us down this narrow road, with a mountain face on one side and a cliff on the other.

The way this looks in my memory, there would barely have been space enough for a motorcycle between those two trucks, let alone for a small car. Despite this, we just drove between them, without even brushing their sides.

I have no idea whether my memory is distorted or some kind of miracle happened, but even at that time, I didn't understand how we got through that situation alive, let alone completely unscathed.

[Bill Ryan]

[mountain_jim]

reposting this recent post, an experience from my season working in Zion National Park

(yes, I have felt intuitively protected from premature departure -

to fulfill my purposes for this incarnation?)

Posted by mountain_jim (here)
Another personal note on the location shown here



We as off-duty employees of the park concessionaire (1978) were inside this tunnel at night, returning from that portal pictured in my earlier post, when car lights coming caused us to run to tunnel exit. (there was no sidewalk or area to be out of the car lanes inside the tunnel).

That wall to left of the car shown - I leapt over it to get off the highway, in midair my guardian angel(?) suggested urgently that I did not know what was on the other side - I reached out and grabbed the wall while going over, and my feet found an extrusion to hold me up, preventing me from falling 60 or so feet into a likely dry-canyon gulch death.

My best friend jumped before me, closer to the tunnel, and he landed on the close area before the steep drop and was unhurt as well.



Another time this helpful internal voice saved me from my car being hit broadside by a redlight runner - when light turned green I 'knew' to stay there and not enter the intersection - then the car raced through where I would have been at a very high speed.