Summer days in the U.P can’t get much better. The sun beating down as my cousins and I were enjoying all the U.P has to offer. At my uncle Joe’s cabin, we decided to go on a swim in a shallower spot, about a hundred yards away from shore. So, by kayak we made the trip for a perfect swim. We would soon find out it would be far from perfect.

Before we left I had to make sure we had an adult, and life jackets which my cousins and I almost left without. As we arrived we got out on the beach like bank, and began to swim in the shallow end, and everything seemed fine. We then decided we were going to swim across the river to the marsh that was about 100 yards away. My uncle and one of my cousins, Nathan, stayed back. So, that left my brother Nick, my cousin Devin, and I. We left for the other side. Halfway there I became tired and headed back as they kept going. My uncle noticed them slowing up so he said,” Alright, that’s far enough, turn around and come back.” he repeated himself over and over but through the splashing of the water they couldn’t hear him and keep swimming. Suddenly, things took a turn for the worse and Devin got out too far and got too tired and it was to deep and he couldn’t touch.

Devin began to scream,”HELP!”  “HELP” over and over and over again, his head bobbing up and down as he was gasping for air. My brother noticing and started swimming over to him to help.  There is a problem in this because Nick couldn’t touch either so keeping him afloat would put him at risk also, but he risked himself to attempt to save our cousin. As this was going on, my uncle, who was a former eagle scout, jumped in the canoe asap and was off like a bullet. Nathan and I were screaming as we watched Devin drowning right in front of our eyes. Nick however wasn’t about to let this happen.  He would go down until he could touch, hold Devin up until he himself was out of breath and then would surface for air and repeat. He must have done this ten times before my uncle had reached them. Let’s just say I have never saw a canoe move that fast. Anyways, he instantly though in the lifejackets to nick. Nick then gave one to Devin, but he was flailing so bad he batted them away by accident. Nick then had to literally place him on the lifejackets. As this was going on, my uncle noticed that the lifejackets wouldn’t be enough to hold him above water. So being a former eagle scout he used the skills he had learned and knew exactly what to do. He purposely flipped the canoe to give them something to grab onto to stay afloat.  Nate and I now took action.

At the time, we did not know he flipped the canoe on purpose, so we paddled as fast as we could to go help them. As we arrived we helped them get the canoe flipped back over and get Devin and Nick back into the canoe’s. He was so pale as he sat their silently, coughing up water and gasping for air.  I was trying to stay strong and work quickly to get them to shore. When he calmed down enough to talk, he started to thank us, praying to god, and thanking Nick for saving him. We stayed positive trying not to think of what could have happened if Nick wouldn’t have been right there to help, or my uncle wasn’t there, or I wasn't there, but God was there…

As we reached shore, we carefully took him off the canoe and laid him down. We started talking about how grateful we were and that we had each others back during something like this, and how amazing it is. We saved his life. Devin started to throw up due to overexertion and water intake, we had to get him some milk and bring it down to the river. I now was getting emotional. I mean yeah, I was super grateful we were able to save him and the thought of what could've happened if he was in the water for any longer was racing through my mind. I couldn’t live without him. He is not only my cousin but my best friend and has been there for me since day one, and he was almost taken from us. Nick was the real hero though he put his on the line, but stayed calm and knew exactly what to do.  Something I will never forget.

After I thought about the whole situation and it brought me to tears. Being so upset was not the best way to greet the rest of the family. They were frightened when they saw me run into the house crying. They were yelling,” WHAT HAPPENED?”

“IS EVERYONE OKAY?” “WHAT'S GOING ON?”

I told them a brief description of what had happened and what I was doing up at the cabin. They started to help and were freaking out because I was crying and we weren't sure if Devin was completely out of the woods yet.
I couldn’t stop crying. Even after I knew he was ok I still couldn’t drop the thought of what I witnessed and what could've been. My dad and uncle Joe were just arriving back to the cabin, and I told them the story. Our family was so proud of the 4 of us.  Together we saved Devin’s life that day. We all pitched in and made sure we weren't going to lose our cousin. It was truly amazing what we accomplished by working together.

Devin recovered quickly and was now talking, laughing, and thanking all of us over and over again. We had to retell the story in more detail to our family so they knew why were sad relieved, and basically helped them understand what we had just went through. They brought us up by congratulating us (especially Nick) and how proud they were of us and that made us all feel a lot better. Devin told it from his point of view and it was pretty scary. He told us a pretty chilling fact. He said,” The last time I came up for air and grabbed the life jackets, was the last time I could have done it.” That really changed how I felt about our rescue. We came through in clutch and stayed strong when it counted.  I’m thankful that we all came together and worked as a family to save the life of my first friend, my cousin Devin.