Pulled to the Bottom

When I was about two-years-old my dad went fishing with my mom's stepfather in Washington. My mom's stepfather loved to fish and he actually lived on a boat before he moved to Hawaii and married my grandmother. My dad and step-grandfather flew to Washington just to go fishing and to visit some relatives.

On the boat my dad and step-grandfather were having a great time and were really bonding. They spent all day fishing and had many great catches. When it was starting to get late my step-grandfather accidentally dropped his fishing pole into the water, he told my dad to go under the boat and to get it.

My dad took a deep breath and dove into the icy water. He grabbed the pole successfully, however his shirt got stuck on the anchor. He didn't realize this at first so he pushed off from the bottom as hard as he could, but he didn't go up at all. My dad tried over and over to go, but he just couldn't. He then realized that his shirt was stuck to the anchor.

My dad thought he was going to die. He was running out of air quickly. He couldn't get his shirt off of the anchor and it was attached to the anchor so tightly that he couldn't even take it off. He started to see his life flash before his eyes. Right when he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he felt himself start to rise up to the surface. Then he felt an arm go around his waist and start to pull him up to the surface.

This arm belonged to my step-grandfather. For step-grandfather was starting to wonder what was taking my dad so long to just dive down and get the pole. He figured that something must be wrong and dove into the water after my dad. Luckily, he dove with his pocket knife in his pocket so when he reached my dad he cut him lose from his shirt. My dad is very grateful that my step-grandfather dove into the water when he did, because my dad doesn't think that he could have held his breath for even a second more.