I was a child, 6 or 7 years old. It was a hot summer day and our family decided to go for a swim in a local abandoned gravel pit. I believe I was the oldest child there, bored with the "babies" and wanted to go join the adults who were swimming in a deeper area of the gravel pit. I tried to join them, but was told to return to where I had been. I went back to where I thought I had been, but upon walking into the water, stepped into a hole and felt nothing beneath me.

I remember only sinking and struggling, bubbles going up, darkness. A very bright warm light appeared above me and I stopped struggling. There was no more fright, I was calm and seemed to be being drawn into the light. It was tranquil, I was at peace as I had never been before, happy to be moving towards this unknown bliss and beauty.

I saw no beings. I do not remember any noise. I was content and happy and eager to keep on course. On shore, the adults were trying to find me. My Uncle noticed my long ponytail breaking on the surface of the water and pulled me up with it. I felt it and remember feelings of anger for having been stopped from continuing my journey. I do not remember anything from the time after this. I don't remember how I came to, or any after affects. I recovered and was not taken to a doctor or hospital.

My Uncle died a few years later in a terrible truck accident. I loved him dearly.

I do not really know if this incident had any affect on my life, although I'm sure it has had some. I'm not afraid of being dead, (but I do not want to die, I love this life). I was never afraid of dead people (at funerals, etc.), never afraid to touch them or look at them as some children are. I remember being asked, as a child if I would kiss my paternal Grandmother goodbye at her funeral, and doing it, and feeling a real sense of saying goodbye to her. My sister and brother did not do this and I wondered why they wouldn't at the time. (At my maternal Grandmother's funeral an Aunt and a cousin asked me to pin a rose on Gram, because they couldn't do it, and I felt honored to be the last person to gift her with a flower and also felt a little confused as to why they asked me to do it, when she had so many children and grandchildren to chose from. I was an adult at this time.) It just seemed that their bodies were what was left of them on earth, just reminders or the remains of who they were. I felt sad for my loss of them, but knew they went somewhere that was beyond my knowledge, lovely and safe. I am not a member of an organized religion and feel no need to be so.