As usual, the memorial day weekend was filled with clouds, thunder, and rain for the majority of the time we were down at the lake. And as usual, the only significant patch of sunshine came on monday as everyone was packing up and heading home. Nonetheless, I think everyone had a pretty good time.
While the rain may have dampened our weekend, it was still considerably nicer that one such family who we crossed paths with by mere chance while driving back to the boat dock. We passed a chaotic scene where several people were scrambling around a guy who was passed out in the parking lot of a gas station. Someone was attempting to perform CPR and it was fairly clear that they were in desperate need of some help. We called Gretchen (our friend who also happens to be a nurse) and she came up to the station and correctly performed CPR until the first responders, and later the ambulance arrived. Away from everyone else she told us that the man was dead before we even arrived and no one was going to be able to bring him back. She really impressed all of us with the way she confidently took charge of the scene and did her best to revive the guy.
It was a fairly traumatizing scene for all of us who were there… and yet it probably ranks at about a 2 on the scale of how traumatizing a real word scene can be. But to stand back and watch everything unfold was an experience that I can’t recall ever having. Nor one that I really care to have again.