Daily of a Rescue Diver : Face in shadow

Facts narrated by a rescue diver, in search of people who were victims of drowning and who succumbed in the depths of the waters of the seas and rivers.

"He always returns in silence. I see his lost eyes, perhaps still trapped in the sound of the water or in the last dying soul he rescued.

I remember the day he came home with that uniform soaked in whale oil after he and his colleagues tried to free a stranded whale. 'It was a hopeless fight,' he said. No matter how hard they tried, she got stuck again, this time among the mangroves, where the tide receded too quickly. The water must have been too murky for her to see the way back, sealing her fate. He told me that he himself began dissecting the animal with a sickle so the biologists could collect samples. When he spoke of her, he described a creature over nine meters long—immense, majestic, but lifeless. More like a fallen giant than a being of the sea. Deep in his closet, there's still a piece of her fin—a remnant of that mission. He returned exhausted, reeking of fish mixed with salt water, carrying on his shoulders a failure he refused to acknowledge.

Eliza asked me yesterday, 'Mom, does Dad ever get scared?' I told her that heroes shouldn’t feel fear.

When he leaves, I stay here, between prayers and promises, trying to be strong for both of us, knowing well the risks he faces on these missions."