Drowning
Many years ago, before my parents divorced, we used to make frequent car trips to Detroit from our home in Connecticut. The nature of these trips was to take my brother Joey, who had Down’s Syndrome (Trisomy 21), to see one Henry Turkel, M.D. who was treating Down’s children with a regimen of massive nutritional supplementation. Dr. Turkel was not allowed by FDA regulation to ship his preparations so the patients came to him. (there is quite a bit of literature online regarding Turkel, some hailing him a genius and some a quack).
Our trips would begin in a green Chevrolet station wagon. My father would build up a nest of sorts in the “way back” with suit cases on the bottom and various layers of quilts and blankets on top. I’d spend most of the trip back there. I was about five years old.
We’d always stop overnight at a hotel. On this one particular trip we stayed at a Holiday Inn I think; I don’t know where. Of course we kids had to use the pool. Joey needed a tremendous amount of attention. He was very fidgety and very busy and someone really needed to dedicate 100% of their attention to him during every waking moment. He was severely retarded.
We went to the pool. It was an outdoor pool and fairly crowded. My Mother stuck close by Joey in the shallow end of the pool. There was a lifeguard on duty. My father was sunning himself on a chaise beside the pool. The deep end of the pool was filled with perhaps four or five Japanese men enjoying the water.
I was roaming around the shallow end of the pool alone. I was five. Suddenly, the bottom fell out from under me and I began sliding down the decent that becomes the deep end of the pool. I remember my first moment of panic realizing I couldn’t touch the bottom. I remember looking down and seeing the bottom through the blue green light, and looking up at the surface, shimmering in the sunlight. I went under. I don’t know how long I was under. It seemed like a long time and when I look back I remember it in slow motion play back.
Nobody came to my aid. My Mother was busy. My Father wasn’t paying attention. I don’t know what the lifeguard was doing—probably not his job since I was the only unattended small child in that pool.
Eventually I felt several hands hoist me up out of the water. It was the Japanese men who realized I was in trouble and rescued me. At that point all the attention shifted to me and my parents took me back to our room where I coughed up water for what seemed like hours.
Later, I saw the Japanese men in the hotel elevator. One of them gave me a small gift. I don’t know what it is. Can you help me identify it?
The photo is of that small gift. I included the penny for scale. The cord used to be a very vivid purple but has since faded quite a bit.
