The Indepth Me

PREFACE
I promised to tell you the complete story of Jan’s death.
She was 32.
It happened in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, West Indies
on March 16, 1990 at 10:10 a.m.
It was a scuba diving accident.
Two other people died. I have changed the names of the other divers.
All other details, from my point of view, are entirely true....


I was permitted on the dock, alone, to view Nathan’s dead body. He
came up too fast. In life, a handsome, trim, white man; in death, a purple
manatee, blood coming out of all orifices.
I stumbled off the dock, across the white sand, to sit down in the shade.
I felt faint. I was sweating profusely and very thirsty. Four women
approached me and offered to take care of me in one of their rooms. They
were all staying at the hotel on the beach, student nurses on holiday from
Wisconsin. They said they did not know each other, nor did any of them
have a sister.
There were so many bureaus of the JA and US governments that needed to
talk to me. The 4 women harbored me during this process in the shade of
their cool room, with a glass of ice water and a wet cloth for my forehead.
An official from the US Embassy took Jan’s passport from me.
When it seemed I could do no more there, the four women went with me
to do the hardest thing ever, call home and say, “I lost Jan!”
Everyone believed that Jan was lost at sea ON A BOAT - until the next.
call...
xviii
The four women went with me back to the villa. We walked on the beach
until the others from the accident returned to the villa. I never saw the
4 women again. They’d given me their addresses; I wrote all 4 of them.
They never answered. That’s when I knew they were Angels.
The helicopter search for Jan and Kim would continue for over a week.
Jock stayed in Jamaica to keep looking. Our families needed to cling to
the hope that they could still be alive. No trace of their bodies was ever
found.
It’s taken me thirteen years to get around to telling you this story. It’s
taken that long to piece it together. I’ve talked to the divers on that dive
and professional divers all over the world; I’ve seen the reports from the
marine biology research center and the depositions and findings from the
lawsuit. I’ve consulted many psychics about my sister’s death.
So, as far as I can tell, here is what happened:
The nine divers assembled on the boat are: Jan, Kim, Lucy’s husband and
son, Ed, Art and Wayne, including dive masters, Jock and Nathan. After
waiting for a third dive master for over an hour, the captain of the fishing
boat wants to get going. (That’s right; a fishing boat, not a dive boat!)
Angry words are exchanged between the captain and Nathan. The captain
maneuvers the boat away from the dock. The other dive master, the one
who knew where they were going, runs onto the dock. He is waving his
arms and shouting “Wait for me!” The captain does not go back for him
but cusses him instead. Out at sea the captain and Nathan argue again over
where the reef is.
The boat does not drop anchor at the dive site.
Lucy’s son hears a voice; “You are going to die.”
“What?”
“Well, someone is going to die here today.”
He still feels guilty that he did not heed the premonition, but what could
he have done?
The nine divers circle up. They fall back into the water, entering perfectly
as a group. Going down, Nathan is in the lead. Wayne is having trouble
with his ears. Jock hangs back to help him. Ed is watching his depth
gauge and stops at 100 feet. Jock instructs Wayne and Ed to return to the
boat together.
xix
Lucy’s son feels like he is in a huge river of current going down fast.
They must have missed the reef. He and his dad, Jan, Kim, and Art are
all standing now.
They are in awe at the whitest sand, the bluest blue, the biggest shells
and tallest grasses EVER. Feeling quite blissful, Lucy’s son looks at his
depth gauge.
It is off the scale, way too deep for the sport diving mixture of oxygen
and nitrogen in their tanks! He and his dad begin their ascent, but run
out of air. When they reach the surface, they are passed out, bleeding
from the nose and ears.
Jock sees Jan and Kim down there. Art is freaking out. They are trying
to help him. Jock swims down towards them. Nathan is on his way up!
His hands are up and his shoulders are shrugged as if to say, “Beats Me!”
Jock angrily commands Nathan, in scuba sign language of course, “Get
down there and help those people!!!”
Nathan continues his ascent. His scuba gear was blown off his body. On
autopsy, he was found full of cocaine.
Jock reaches the three divers still down. He makes eye-contact with
Kim and Jan. They look good. They are not panicking like Art is. Jock
motions to Jan and Kim to come with him. He grabs Art and drags him
to the surface, fully believing Jan and Kim are right there with him.
They may not have realized the serious crisis they were in. None of the
divers released their weight belts to make easier the arduous swim to the
surface.
The report from the marine biology research center hailed Jock’s
tremendous athletic feat of carrying another diver over 300 feet without
air. The topography of the ocean floor was described as a 15 degree
angle, going towards the abyss, the immeasurable bottom.
Jan and Kim may not have been strong enough to make it back. They
probably died instantly of nitrogen narcosis.
xx
That evening, back at the villa, I received a telegram.
Several friends at home in Minnesota had a vision of Jan. She was
swimming with dolphins. She did not know she was dead. She had
Angel’s surrounding her just as I did.
The dolphins were helping her, helping her adjust to her change in form.