My brother Zachary was lucky to have been able to visit Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean on several occasions between the time he was 14 and 24. He spent many enjoyable hours with his family and friends on that island, soaking up the sun, snorkeling, beach combing, swimming with stingrays, and having delicious meals while watching the sun set. Zachary died on May 4th, 2008. By the time June came, our family needed to get away. We needed a change of scenery. We needed a break. We needed a different place to heal. We needed to reconnect as a family, and we needed to reflect on Zachary’s journey. Naturally, we packed our things and headed to Grand Cayman, where we have spent some amazing time together with Zachary.

We arrived and as excited as I was to be there, it was apparent that a big part of our family was missing. My heart was heavy knowing Zachary was not there to experience another magnificent vacation with us. One of the activities Cayman is famous for is the Scuba Diving. So one day I, my wife DeeAnna and my younger brother Mike decided to go out on a dive. We typically go on a deep wall dive (100 ft.) and then a more shallow dive (60 ft.). When I scheduled the dives over the phone with the dive company, I made sure to tell them we wanted to go on both a deep dive, and a shallow dive. This particular day, after we boarded the dive boat, we were advised by the dive master that we would not be doing a deep dive, because we had other divers on the boat who were not yet certified to dive that deep. Once I learned this, I was nearly furious. I almost told them to take me back to shore. I was so looking forward to a deep wall dive! I nearly lost my cool, but one of the most important lessons Zachary ever taught me helped me to relax. I am sure you have heard that saying, “What would Jesus do?” Well, in my years of being close with Zachary, I learned to watch him and use his actions as a positive example. I often find myself asking the question, “What would Zachary do?” On the dive boat, I asked myself this question. I then decided to put a positive spin on the new information I had received about the dive plans, and thought, “We are going to have two great shallow dives!” And that’s exactly what we did.

On the second dive, when we entered the water, the sun was shining. It was a semi-cloudy day, but the sun was out and it was beautiful. It did not look like it would rain. We entered the water and proceeded to have one of the most amazing dives ever. We scared a gorgeous octopus out of the reef which gracefully swam with us for a few minutes. It was probably about 3 feet long. It changed colors as it glided around the reef. Seeing a Caribbean reef octopus of this size is a rare event. What an amazing site! Then, as we ascended slowly to the surface, all three of us looked up at the surface of the water at about the same time. We were about 30 feet below. Suddenly it looked like millions of tiny reverse water drops were covering the surface above us. It was a surreal moment and I thought I might be experiencing ‘nitrogen narcosis’ which causes divers to hallucinate when they get too much nitrogen in their blood stream. The surface of the water looked absolutely extraordinary. We all realized at about the same time that it was pouring down rain above us, and this was creating the spectacular scene at the surface of the ocean. We very slowly continued to ascend, making sure we took in every breathtaking moment carefully. Once we reached the surface and climbed aboard the boat, we looked around. In the 40 minutes we were under water, the sky had turned from partly sunny to a dark gray. There was a fog that hung in the air all around the boat that seemed to appear out of nowhere. We were only about a half mile from the shore, but we couldn’t even see the beach through this thick gray fog. Besides the rain drops hitting the water, there was complete silence. We were speechless. We just stood there and took it in. It was beautiful, astonishing and eerie all at the same time.

When I reflect on this dreamlike experience and fantastic dive, I know Zachary had something to do with it. To this day I still try hard to practice Zachary’s lesson. Before I respond emotionally and irrationally, I ask myself, “What would Zachary do?” If I didn’t I might miss out on a miraculous event.

Samson