Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire When did you first feel your mortality?

when i was hit by a car at 9 yrs old

April 1990 in Botswana...............
Facing down buffalo and lion at spttin' distance..........
And then there were those two mambas........

When I had a stroke 9 years ago!

My first brush with mortality was when I lost a girlfriend to a drunk driver when I was 16 years old. I honestly questioned if I had a place in this world without Chris by my side. It was absolutely devastatingly horrible to get through. I was mad, confused, lost in my own misery. Football season rolled around junior year, and I played like a man possessed. I broke two blocking sleds, and knocked two guys out of games that fall. I never hit anyone so hard in my life. My team mates knew what I was going through, and pretty much stayed out of my way. It was a very tough time.

My second brush with mortality was when Dad passed away. Three weeks in guarded intensivecare. I was there when they wheeled him into emergency surgery for the last time. He waved at me, and I just knew he'd never make it off the table,and he didn't. To this day I miss him terribly. It happened over 30 years ago.

When the doc told me I have an aortic aneurysm. I walk around with a hand grenade in my chest.

28 years old, attending the Sapper Leader Course, I came to with an IV needle in each arm and a medic doing chest compressions. I’m told I fell over and my heart raced then stopped. Got oriented enough to enjoy the stretcher ride to the evac vehicle, followed by a day and a half learning how to walk, eat and control when I went to the bathroom. Never got a real diagnosis, but it varied between heat stroke and Hyponatremia. Made the mistake of thinking about my daughter who had just learned to walk and completely lost it. Decided to take better care of myself from then on, with moderate success.

Old70

Similar. Running EMS when the patients having heart attacks and strokes were younger than me...

Prostate cancer at 45.

I'm 60 now, and beat It.

When friends of mine started dying. When people your age start dying or getting sick with an uncomfortable frequency it makes you realize your time here is limited. I remind myself every day to use it wisely.

When i was in a car accident in 1993. Doctor told my wife not to go to far away because her next call would be to a funeral home. Said he was sure i wouldn't make it. I fooled him. I am still alive. Have arthritis in every bone i broke and can no longer walk but i am still here. Might have been better if i had crocked.
Changed my mind about a lot of things after that.

The first time was when I took an unexpected swim duck hunting in 35 degree weather.
More recently; when my best friends 59 year old wife who was like my big sister was diagnosed with brain cancer(like McCain), She lasted a year; I hate cancer.

Speed wobble at 95 mph on my 305 Superhawk..
Sleeping drunk driver trying to do a head on in my lane on the highway.
Falling 30' onto a rock filled beach trimming a tree limb that took out the ladder.
Getting hit in the head with a brick during a home invasion.
Having my knee fold over five times a mile from the truck while deer hunting.
Seeing my step-son after he put a 20 gauge in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Watching my wife die from lung cancer
Open heart surgery.
Take your pick.

Best friend spoke a bit about ChuLai when prodded. He was there about the same time, maybe a bit earlier. He was a Marine.

B

My second CAS engagement in the An Lao Valley where we took small arms fire from the port and starboard sides simultaneously..

That would do it. I'm so sorry to hear one man went thru all that.

Most recently, in 2013, I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my right leg that went from the top of my inner thigh down to my ankle.
They then scanned my lungs and found I had two very large clots in both lungs.

The Doc's said I was extremely lucky to be alive. Spent 5 days in the hospital and another two years on Coumadin. Will be on an aspirin regiment for the rest of my life because even the Mayo clinic lab results couldn't pin point a cause.

15 years old, commercial salmon fishing in Bristol Bay. Loaded down on the south line of Egegik, my Dad called in a "tender", a bigger boat that we would offload salmon onto. The tender anchors, we come along the port side and they use their crane to lift off 1200 lb bags of salmon. Another boat comes along the starboard side. The deck bolts on the starboard crane let go and 1200 lb of salmon pulled that crane arm down right onto the head of the guy that would have been me if we had picked that side. I remember the blood coming down his face from under his sweatshirt hood.

Figured out a long time ago ain't gonna come out of life alive. Nothing in particular did that to me.

Not really a big deal, though as we age I"m sure we all get these thoughts, sure hate to leave my wife alone, but its eitehr her or me at some point.

I see a lot of positives when we run a wreck call where both husband and wife die at the same time... as negative as that sounds.

First time was about 1976 as LTJG flying around the Big Island of Hawaii in a T-28B on a “FACIT” hop (F__k Around and Call It Training). I turned up a blind canyon and went “Uh oh!” Actually, I think it was probably “Oh $—t!” I didn’t have enough room straight ahead to accelerate and do a Half Cuban Eight or an Immelmann or enough lateral room do a wingover.
Fortunately I knew the “max climb angle airspeed” and went right to 110 knots (I still remember after 42 years 😀). As I approached the huge trees at the end of the valley, I swear I tried to stand up to give my a$$ more room to clear them. It was CLOSE I mean REALLY close!....I’m guessing less than 50’. That was shortly after our first, a daughter, was born. No more “flat hatting” for me. We had a son a few years later and now have three beautiful grand daughters and a grandson with my name.

Last year it happened again when I heard my name used in the same sentence as “the C word”.

In June of 2017 when I found out I had cancer and thinking the chance of life wasn't good. Just before Christmas found out I am clear. Still recovering and found out my company let me go but still is going to cover my LTD till my doctor releases me. Now every day is a blessing if I don't do anything, spend it fishing with my boy or working out with my doctor. Life has more meaning than ever before.