They had spent a beautiful Monday with their dogs at Rattlesnake Lake. As they were about to load up the canoe on the pickup, they heard frantic calls for “Help.” It was hard to tell where the yells were coming from.

But the woman quickly shoved off the canoe and started paddling with all her might toward the middle of the lake. A child’s inflatable raft with sail was being blown down the lake by Rattlesnake’s incessant breeze. In the raft was a small girl,maybe 4 or 5 years old. She had no life jacket on, and her parents swimming furiously after her were losing ground quickly.

But the woman in the canoe was gaining on the raft, finally headed it and lifted the frightened girl into the canoe and paddled back to shore, to the stunned parents.

It is too grim to think what might have happened if the little girl panicked or had the raft been buffeted by a strong gust.

Remarkably, this little drama went largely unnoticed by the swimmers and partyers at the lake. But as the woman and her husband were about to drive away a small boy approached the woman and said “thank you for saving that little girl.”

I guess this is a little lesson about life jackets and about the kind of people around us.

Tom Fix

Snoqualmie