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Unexpected Detour In the blink of an eye, life can change forever
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Published: April 2, 2008
"It is still hard to believe that I
was ‘smack dab in the middle of it.'
" -- Marion Pittman-Couch, former principal, Paisley Magnet School
One year ago, underneath a calm exterior, I was emotionally spent, disappointed, hurt and in a state of disbelief. My wife and I had survived a shipwreck. On April 5, 2007, the day before Good Friday, the MS Sea Diamond hit a volcanic reef, started taking on water and eventually sank. Traveling with the group from Paisley Magnet School in Winston-Salem, we were sailing the deep-blue waters of the Aegean Sea, admiring the high cliffs ahead, the white buildings atop and as Donald Lail, our trip coordinator, described it, the "beautiful rugged coastline."
While we were taking it all in, capturing the memories on video and digital cameras, the unexpected happened. The captain made a critical error, and the approximately 1,500 passengers would pay for it. It was a surprise, literally out of the blue, a surreal experience. There was no warning, alarm or announcement as to what was happening, just a sea of confusion and fear. Panic. In some ways it was an out-of-body experience.
It was "an incredibly tragic" one for Page Dancy, traveling with her husband and two children. "I look back and sometimes wonder if we were really on that ship or was it one of my crazy dreams." She, like others, will not cruise again.
The event changed Lail's life forever; he recalls, "the look of terror on the faces of passengers as they fought their way to the top decks of the ship." He was focused on one thing, getting the students to safety. "I remember kissing my wife and saying goodbye before scrambling to the bottom floor of the ship, pounding on doors and yelling for people to ‘get out,' " he said.
I remember when he threw his hands up in the air, thankful that all group members were accounted for. We had made it. We survived. A collective sigh of relief was expressed.
I knew something bad had happened when I saw a crew member with a life jacket on, another with a life preserver in his hand, and I realized that water was running out of the pool in front of me. That's when my wife and I started running.
Our two-week trip through Rome and Greece was coming to an abrupt end. Only a day remained before the return trip home, rich with memories, pictures, gifts and souvenirs. So we thought. In the blink of an eye, life changed. Lesson learned: Don't take life for granted.
What a sick feeling it was watching the ship sink slowly, knowing you lost everything, except your life and what you had on, or in your possession at the time. It rattled some to their core. Some things we can't recover; they are gone forever.
Carol Davis, another parent, traveling with her husband and two children, put it this way: "We all had some souvenirs that we were looking forward to enjoying once we got home." As a matter of fact, some had to buy extra luggage to pack the extra "stuff" they purchased. Like me, her husband lost photographs and a few art collectibles. I really, really miss those photos.
Nathan Burton, a teacher and chaperone on the trip, misses something else: the lost opportunity "to ride the mules up to the city of Santorini."
And then there is the loss of innocence that some students experienced. Their youthful cockiness was jolted, never to be quite the same again. There is a time in life to grow up, and for many of the students it was thrust upon them all of a sudden and without their permission. Yet, they responded.
"My daughter maintained her composure like never before, and my son became a leader who barked orders on deck like he was part of the crew," Davis stated with pride.
Students realized they escaped with their lives and saw what really matters in life. Marion Pittman-Couch, then the principal of the school, recalls a conversation with a student who said, "That's just stuff. Nothing in our luggage was important. I can't wait to see my parents and tell them how much I love them."
Looking back now, my wife wonders, as others do, about the French father and his daughter who didn't make it off the ship. His wife and son did. As Davis expressed, there is sadness for the family's loss.
Everyone's story is different, yet there are important lessons shared by all: Life is fragile. Family is important. We are stronger than we think. Our humanity emerges in times of crisis. Everything is replaceable, except life. Be thankful, every day. Live in the moment.
Lail says it well when he describes the incident as a "remarkable educational experience." That it was. A defining moment, one always to be remembered. I look forward to returning to Santorini one day. Lail has already. I'm not riding that mule, though.
■ Nigel Alston is a Dale Carnegie trainer and motivational speaker. He can be reached at nalston1@triad.rr.com.
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