A stranger, a brother; Our hero's....

If you can't tell, I have a theme of thanking people who have impacted our lives....it's long overdue, so bare with me.



This is Allan. Allan is someone we have never formally met and by guessing, I only know a few things about him. I think he lives near Sacramento and that he has a wife/girlfriend(not sure) and child, and that's it. And yet being a stranger, you wouldn't know that he has impacted us by giving Mark another chance at life. In the picture, he is being awarded for that very reason.

This part is hard for me because I don't like to talk about the accident. As many know, September 3rd was a very traumatic day. And without going into too much detail, it happened up near Sacramento on the American River. Allan was at the river that day not too far down from us.

Allan was out in the river with a snorkel and mask, I'm assuming, enjoying Labor Day with his loved ones like we were. When the accident happened he was the first one that heard our screams and began searching under the water for Mark. At that moment, I ran up the river to find help and a cell phone and no joke, I was screaming and people just stared at me, they didn't move. I never did make sense of that but it made me realize how blessed we were to have had Allan their at that moment. And from second hand information, he was searching with his mask under water when he saw a white glimmer at the bottom, reached down and pulled Mark out. Allan is someone in our life who, just by being who he is, gave Mark a chance to still be here. Had he not been there, at that moment, in that spot, Mark wouldn't be on this earth. He deserves much more recognition than we can offer.



This is Paul. Paul is Mark's youngest brother. He was with us on that day also. He decided to go with us last minute. Before leaving to the river, Mark and Paul were chatting and Paul mentioned he had recently taken a CPR course. Mark can't remember why they were talking about this but obviously it's relevant. Paul luckily didn't witness the accident. I like to think that Heavenly Father saved him from witnessing this horrible accident because maybe it would have traumatized him in a way that would have made him feel he couldn't do what ended up saving Mark's life, but that is my personal feeling. After Allan pulled Mark from the river, Paul was just making his way back up to us(he had continued floating down earlier) and saw Allan. Mark didn't have a heartbeat and was not breathing. Paul started CPR on him which miraculously started his heart and breathing, although Mark didn't regain consciousness till 2 days later. Paul preforming the CPR ultimately saved his life.

I want them both to know that we were blessed that they were put in that place, at that time, in order for Sierra and Joshua to still have their dad. I don't know what else I can say other than Thank you...but it just doesn't seem enough.