Feel Strength Again

I got a Strength key for my sweet friend. While vacationing at our cottage with my own family, husband and three children with our dear friends. We all arrived and were thrilled to be spending time together at the lake. 10 days of boating, dinners, cocktails, surfing, tubing, we would do it all. First morning here, my husband and his friend, his three children and our eldest daughter go to get the boat. They are out on the water and me and my friend see them coming. We hop on the paddle boards and head out to the boat to say Hi. Our husbands are having a great time, they cruise past us creating waves that knock us off our boards. We are already having a fantastic time and we hop back on the boards and head into shore waiting to be picked up by them in the boat.

They don't come to pick us up. The next thing we know we hear my daughter screaming 150 feet off from shore. Screaming, "Mummy, Mummy Help!" My friend and I panic, grab the paddle boards and head out to the boat. Screaming, crying, begging to know what is wrong. When we reach the boat we see my husband on the swim platform frantically looking at the water. Her three children are screaming for their Dad. My daughter is shaking, crying and trying to comfort them. They just stopped the boat to jump in, it was so hot. He dove off the boat and never resurfaced. People came swimming out from the beach on paddle boards, kayaks, floaties, boats. The search went on for hours, they couldn't find him. Our families sat together on the beach waiting, crying and praying. As minutes turned into hours we knew that he was gone.

It took 2 1/2 days of divers searching in 40 feet of water to find our friend. My friends husband, the father of their three children. They finally recovered his body and the autopsy revealed he had a brain stem tumour. The jump off the boat, the way he twisted his neck as he jumped and landed in the water caused the tumour to erupt. He would have blacked out and likely died instantly. This was a month ago. As I watch my friend grieve for the loss of her best friend, partner and soulmate, I pray that she will have the strength to heal and help her children heal. I hope that one day she will feel strong again.