Water Falling
We went for a great hike with the family today. There was a stream flowing near the path for about half of the hike, and it ended up at a water fall. I’ve been there before, but this time there was water falling from all the cliffs, and not just the fall in the stream. I haven’t looked through most of the shots Lissa took yet, but this one looked like a great post for today. I will work through some of the other images and share them as I have time. For now it was a long day, and I’m ready to get some sleep, so this one will have to do.
When we were at the top of our hike my phone pinged, letting me know that I had a notification. I looked at it quickly and saw that it was a news article from the Daily Herald, and the headline read something about pulling people from the river. I couldn’t get the article to load, and I was exploring with the boys at the time, trying to make sure everyone was staying safe as we made our way back down. I didn’t think much of it, so we continued to play and hike our way down. As we made our way down we could hear a helicopter in the canyon below us. I knew there had been helicopters working in the area recently, so I didn’t think too much of that, although I should have realized that on a holiday they wouldn’t normally be working.
As we continued down the article pressed on my mind, so I tried to pull it up again. This time I had enough service, and I learned that several people had fallen into the Provo River right near where we were. They had already pulled a couple of adults from the river unconscious, but they were still looking for a child, and possibly another adult. We worked our way down, but with kids we weren’t setting any records. At the bottom of our hike we were right across the road from the river. Traffic was almost at a standstill, and I wanted to help if possible.
A couple of us crossed the road, and went down to the river. I found a sheriff, and asked if it was alright to help look. They were fine with it, but stressed that we needed to stay safe, and to call if we saw anything. I walked along the river a bit, but it was running so high, and the bank was pretty tall were I was I couldn’t really see much of anything. By this time it had already been hours since the people had fallen in, and as fast as the river was moving I was convinced that either they were way down stream, or they had been caught on something and almost certainly not survived. We looked a little more and then went back to our families.
We later learned from news updates that it was a 4 year old girl that fell in the river. Five adults went in to try and save her. Three of the adults manged to get back out of the river, but the other two and not made it. They were pulled from the river miles downstream, and didn’t survive. The little girls still has not been located. One of the adults that didn’t make it was the mom, and the other was a random stranger that did his best to save that little girl.
These kind of situations make me consider how fragile life really is. I often take if for granted that we are all healthy and we’re going to live for “ever”. I need to keep my priorities straight, and spend time with the ones I love. It was good to see how concerned our children were with this person they didn’t know. They all kept hoping that the little girl would still be found and be alright. Life is precious. Our children are so valuable to us. How valuable are we to our Father in Heaven? Give your loved ones a hug, and let’s not waste any of the time we have with those we love!
