Fate is a funny thing. Sometimes a person can die, seemingly for no reason. Well we know that something is the cause, but it isn't always evident. You can be walking down the street and never make it to the other end. I am not going to depress anyone with this article, that is not it's purpose. The only reason that I have mentioned this, is to illustrate the opposite end of the spectrum. I am talking about those unbelievable situations where people should have died, but somehow didn't. Every once in a while we read about someone that survived a terrible accident and walked away, or someone else, that due to incredible fortitude, was able to save them self from a deadly situation. There have even been situations where people were able to muster almost supernatural strength to get out of trouble, or get someone else out of it. One can not help but feel that if it is not your time to die, that you won't.

Photo Source: U.S. Deptarment Of Labor

A fishing trawler was out at sea. The deck hands were doing their job, then something happened and the boat began to sink. The captain was lost at sea, but two deck hands managed to survive. Usually people don't last very long in the water. For one thing, the water is cold and the second reason is that they get weak and drown. One of the surviving fishermen decided to cling to pieces of wood that were in the water. He told the other fisherman that they would be rescued. The second guy, stated the grim truth, which was it would be at least three days before anyone suspected that they were missing and they would be dead by that time. The second guy decided he was going to swim in the general direction of where they came from. The first guy said that this would be suicide, but the second guy knew that if he did not attempt this, they were both dead men. He swam and he swam. Five hours went by, then six, until he was swimming on guts alone, because he was out of strength. He actually managed to swim for over twelve hours and made it to a beach and got help. After both fishermen were taken to the hospital, they somehow got over their hypothermia in about four hours. This was an incredible feat for both of them. Experts are astounded that they were able to survive in the cold water. The fisherman that swam to the land, had been in an other water accident a month before and had to swim a long distance to land through shark infested waters. These guys were meant to survive.

A similar thing happened in even worse conditions. An elderly diver was with a party, that consisted of his son and friends. They were diving for lobsters. Somehow he got separated from the rest. When he got to the surface, the weather was nasty and the tide was headed out to sea. What was he going to do? He decided to swim for land. Folks this guy was in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland and there was a storm. This is one of the worst places a ship can be in, let alone some guy trying to swim for it. He had to swim for three and one half hours, through the most appalling of conditions and yet he made it. He had been a commercial diver and thank heavens was a terrific swimmer. His son had called the authorities and a huge search was mounted for him. He said that as he swam, he began to make out lights, but had no idea of where he was. It was disheartening to him, because he could see a helicopter circling and boats, but they couldn't see him. At one point he held on to a buoy, hoping that they would look there, but he couldn't hold on for long, because the storm had the buoy bouncing all over and hitting him. He was swimming in the dark, which made things even worse. When he got to the bay, he allowed the waves to take him to shore. He was checked out and found to be in fine condition and was allowed to go home. The next day he went for a long walk.

When you hear of those terrifying tsunamis that have taken place in different areas in Asia with their tremendous death tolls, you have to feel that if someone isn't rescued within a couple of days, from whatever deadly situation they are in, then they will never be saved. This is what I thought anyway. To prove that I am not always right, I have to tell you about nine people that beat the odds. These people survived from the time the tsunami hit, which was on December 26, 2004 to February 2, 2005. We are talking about an incredible forty days. The band consisted of five men, two women and two children. They were found on a very remote island off the coast of India. They survived by eating wild boar and coconuts and all were in good shape. The rescue was termed a miracle. Everyone on their island had been killed by the tsunami, but these people had climbed to the highest hill and were saved along with the wildlife up there. The people went into a forest up there and got lost. They began walking and traveled from one end of the island to the other, where they were rescued. The tsunami had killed one hundred and fifty four thousand people and the island was near one of the worst hit areas and yet these people had managed to survive.

There she was, a beautiful thirteen year old surfer. She was so good at surfing that she was recognized as being an up and comer. One day she was on her surf board. The weather was beautiful and she was just relaxing. She had one arm in the water. She had no way of knowing that her life was about to change and it was not for the better. She would become the victim of a shark attack. As she lay on the board, she had no way of knowing that she was being watched by a fifteen foot long tiger shark. Tiger sharks usually top out at about fourteen feet and about two thousand pounds, but this one was a little bigger. They usually hunt at night, but this one was hunting during the day, which was very unusual. This shark is one of the most dangerous. The shark attacked the girl and tore off her arm. She managed to survive, but everyone thought that her surfing career was over. This is a story of such bravery that it is hard to imagine. The girl was back surfing on her board four weeks later. The girl's name is Bethany Hamilton, maybe you have heard of her? One doctor commented that the reason she was able to survive, was that she has such a tremendous survival instinct and that this was able to keep down the pain. I don't know if I buy that, I would have thought that some shock kicked in and maybe that helped.

When one thinks of a baby going through the development period, they think of a baby in the womb, growing. That wasn't the case for one baby, who managed to grow and survive without being in the womb. A twenty year old woman from South Africa gave birth to a healthy baby that had grown in her liver. The liver is a rich source of blood which had provided nutrients. From there, the baby had expanded into the abdominal cavity. None of this was discovered until a few weeks before the due date. When the doctors found this out, they had to perform a very complicated operation to remove the baby. Both baby and mom survived. Another women, this one from the U. K., had a baby develop in her bowel. The bowel provided nutrients to the baby. At first it was believed that the woman had a tumor, then the baby was discovered, but it was already the delivery date. Both are well today. By the way this woman was told that she could never have children.

This is a story about something that is on the minds of all parents everywhere. It is actually too horrible to contemplate, but it does happen and until we can find out the reasons for it, if that is ever possible, it will continue to happen. I am talking about shootings in our schools. The class had twenty five people in it, it was almost entirely full, since only one or two of the students that had signed up for the class were missing. One of the students was seen poking his head into the classroom a couple of times from the hallway. He seemed to be looking for someone. This could not have been further from the truth. It turned out that he was really waiting for the class to fill up, so he could start his dirty deed. He might have even been waiting for particular students to get there. When the class finally got full, he entered. Before he entered, the students in the class thought that they heard drilling going on in the hall. What they were actually hearing was gun shots. The shooter was wearing a sort of boy scout uniform with a black vest over it. He came into the classroom with guns blazing. One female student was spared along with three other students, all the rest were killed or wounded. Bullets were flying everywhere. The female student stated that all she could see were bullets entering bodies. She only avoided being shot by some miracle. Could it have been that the shooter avoided this student on purpose? I guess that we will never know.

Why some of us survive and some of us don't, in any particular situation is known only to God. When you see someone being pried out of a car that is totally demolished and when they are pulled out and then walk away, you have to wonder how this can be. I remember seeing a video of a tractor trailer truck that overturned on a car. The car was a very small one and the trailer was turned on it. To make matters worse, the trailer was loaded with a very heavy cargo, maybe even over loaded. When it turned over, it was almost on the ground. It looked the car had disappeared under it. The fire department had to get a mobile crane to lift the trailer and the crane was barely able to lift it a few feet and hold it there while the area under the trailer was being searched. The firemen were now able to see the crushed car and remarkably there was a hand waving at them. They used the jaws of life to cut the person out and he was able to walk away under his own power. He didn't even have a scratch. As I said when talking about another incredible survival, it just wasn't his time.