A Somber Adventure
I’m coming down with a cold so really debated going to swim or not. I put it off all morning but finally decided I needed a real swim. Not an aqua-jogging session, but a real swim (been about a week since I’ve actually swam because of my bad shoulder).
When I walked into the pool area I was immediately irked by a large group of kids standing right in the way of the ladder into the pool. Then I noticed they were staring at something and that not a single soul was swimming. I was fairly shocked to see a very old man laying on the pool side with all the lifeguards around him performing CPR. I have no idea what happened, but I’ll just assume he had a heart attack or something.
I stared for a few seconds and decided that it was rude to be a lookey-loo and it would be rude to just carry on with swimming, so I did a round of aqua-jogging. As soon as I got into the pool a group of paramedics ran in the door and worked on the poor man for about fifteen minutes. They finally put him on a stretcher and carried him out. They weren’t rushed when they took him out and didn’t have him hooked up to anything. From where I was standing he looked extremely pale. My guess is that he was dead.
I feel very strange about witnessing the (assumed) death of a man that I’m somewhat familiar with. I found this particular old man rather annoying because he didn’t stick to the right like you’re supposed to do and I am almost positive that he peed in the pool one day. He was really, really old–probably in his 80’s at least–so I guess this shouldn’t be surprising. Still, it was a pretty sober moment during the day. Now I’m kind of creeped out about swimming in the lap pool.
The weird thing is, when I first moved her and noticed the complete lack of lifeguards watching the pool (they usually hang out in the foyer) I was more concerned about some old person having a heart attack in the pool than about a kid drowning. I don’t know that the man had a heart attack, but he swims every day so I’m kind of assuming he didn’t drown.
Should I put in a bit of levity now that I’ve shared my unfortunate adventure?
Today was very wet and cold outside so I took a sauna for the first time in months. Some stupid little girl kept opening the door and calling for her friend but her friend didn’t want to come in. I was getting irritated so finally yelled at her “shut the door, stupid girl”. All in Swedish of course. The other woman in the sauna was shocked and so was the girl. I guess I shouldn’t have added the stupid girl part, but I was so irritated I just let fly. I’ve decided I’m going to be more pro-active about letting people know when they are rude. It feels like everyone around here is afraid of children–afraid to give them boundaries and teach them to be polite. I don’t understand it. What do they think the kids are going to do?
And that brings us back to Annica.
Her 18 year old house guest’s two buddies arrived today and apparently the three of them together are exponentially worse than just the one. She took them to the store and told them she would buy them dinner food (since she’s a vegetarian and didn’t have any meat in the house) and they loaded up the cart with tons of coke, chips and assorted other snacks. She paid for it all. Then she left them to their own devices and went to her mother’s house for dinner (I have no idea where her husband was during all this). Later she called me and was whispering on the phone that she didn’t know what to do because they had made a huge mess of her kitchen and didn’t appear to have any plans of cleaning it up. Plus they told her they were going to be staying a few extra nights. I told her to just tell them to go clean it up and if they didn’t clean it up to tell them they couldn’t stay any longer. She didn’t think she had enough bravery to do such a thing. How much bravery does it take to tell a kid (ok, I know 18 year olds consider themselves to be adults but these people are acting like children) to clean up their damn mess or get out of your house? How much courage does it take to tell them you’ll buy their meal supplies but you’re not buying 2 cases of coke? I just can not see that as bravery. Children, even if they are 18 years old, need boundaries. Apparently these boys haven’t been taught even the most basic of manners so they need some not-so-gentle guidance to help them understand what’s appropriate. I wonder what their parents would say? My mother would be mortified if she sent me to stay with some relatives and I acted like that. She’d probably whip my butt even at this age if I she heard of me pulling such shenanigans against the people who kindly offered me their hospitality. I know teenagers are pretty ego-centric and simply don’t think, but it sounds like these boys are even more monstrous than usual. I think I’ll have to tell Annica Marie’s suggestion of “losing” their items or “accidentally” breaking something so at least she can have her revenge.
I guess that’s about it. I hope I have a fun adventure tomorrow instead of staring death in the face. I’ve never seen a dead body quite like that before. My only other experience with dead bodies was in high school human anatomy class. We got to dissect human cadavers one evening but it didn’t seem real. We’d been working on cats all year and they had the faces covered so it was not exactly the same as seeing a person that you peripherally know being wheeled out of your favorite place. You want to know the weird thing? The only person who was upset by the dead bodies during that class was this big, jock, hip, black guy who claimed to be afraid of nothing. He went out and tossed his cookies several times. Poor boy. That had to be embarrassing.
August 20th, 2003 at 11:22 pm
Seeing someone die is a very difficult experience. A few years ago, I was the only person in my office and I noticed that the person in the next office had passed out or something and to make a long story short, he had had a heart attack and I had to call the paramedics, try and drag him out of his office chair (vey large man) with the help of one other man and attempt CPR which I don’t know at all. He ended up dying and I still wish that there had been more that I could have done. Like, if I had really known CPR maybe he wouldn’t have died. And I was also mad at myself for being really grossed out at the time. If it had been my dad, I would have wanted whoever found him to be kind and caring and not grossed out. Anyway, his family was really grateful to me for acting and not just assuming the guy was asleep at his desk, and they gave me a gardenia plant that I am bound and DETERMINED to keep alive no matter what.
Way more than you wanted to know, I’m sure…your story just reminded me of my experience.
August 21st, 2003 at 5:08 am
Wow! I don’t know how I’d react. I think I’d freak if I found him, but just seeing the paramedics work on someone? I don’t know, It’s a very sobering moment, though. I’ve been to funerals before, but I think seeing someone in a natural place (like at a pool) and they are dead… it would shake me up!