A group I was with decided to walk across a crystal clear river because there was a shallow section, only about a foot deep, and it was too cold to swim across. We could easily see the river stones at the bottom. We couldn't see the hole; it all looked like a foot-deep river clear to the opposite bank. I am the one who stepped into the hole.

I was completely dumbfounded. I could not believe that I was in water over my head, so I got stupid. I had taken one step forward, so all I had to do was take one step back and get back to where I had been. It did not occur to me that I could not step backwards out of a hole and it did not occur to me to swim.

My friends saw just what was described in the article. They were also dumbfounded because they knew I could swim and could not believe that I had not instantly started doing so.

I was breathing water without realizing it. It did not hurt. I was in bright sunshine and crystal clear very cold water, but I reached a point where I somehow decided to go into �the warm darkness�. It was the most peaceful moment in my life. I don�t know where the phrase �warm darkness� came from, but my niece used the same phrase several years later to describe what took her over as she prayed and her husband took his last breath (young adult death from cancer).

My friends finally got a grip and yanked me out before I floated away in the current. My throat and chest hurt from the water, but that was the only physical pain of the entire experience. Drowning is a pretty easy way to go I think.

NZ is two long skinny islands, hence we are surrounded by water and most of us learn to swim at a very early age. We also have a great climate and people have pools. Pool fencing is compulsory here, and so it should be whether you have kids or not. 30 years ago our neighbour's 2 year old child, who wasn't being watched for about 2 minutes, wandered next door and drowned in the next door neighbour's (then unfenced) pool. It is gross negligence not to fence a pool.

I guess that depends on how aware you are at the time. My uncle (who was drunk at the time) drowned in the Mississippi River as a very young man. It was horrible for his wife and child. I was a child myself so I don't really remember, but I know my dad hurt over that for years.