An Incredible Saga of Seaman Hegdahl - American Hero - Page 6

Drowning as "A Nice Way to Die"?

Somewhere along the line he had heard that drowning was a "nice way to die;" so he thought he would try it out. He put his hands over his head and down he went -- bloop, bloop, bloop. Now both he and I had heard the myth that when drowning you would get cuddly, warm, all the nice things in your life would flash by in your mind and you would go to your eternal reward to the sound of music (harp?). Doug resurfaced and reports back to us that it is all malarkey: there are no movies, there is no music and it's colder than Hell! As dawn came he started swimming away from the sun, hopefully towards shore. He could see the haze of land, but the harder he tried the further back it receded. So he just rolled on his back, playing like a whale, humming a few tunes and saying a few prayers.