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that he had landed, face down, in the canal she began franticly calling 911. Her antics began attracting <br /> other passersby to also stop. <br /> Coincidence#2: Sandy and Jacque Cypressi were in the second car to stop. Jacque is a friend <br /> of the Gower's here in Indian River County, whom they've known for probably five years. What are <br /> the chances of THAT? Well, she is a no-nonsense person, who concluded immediately that no rescue <br /> could be made without a ROPE, and made it her business to race to each stopped car trying to find <br /> SOMEONE with a rope. Not one car had one. But then Jacque spotted a Contract Services Co. van, <br /> driving north on 74th Ave., approaching 26th Street. The driver Cesar Medina saw that 74th was blocked <br /> with stopped cars, whose drivers were out on the grassy area trying to help with something; he didn't <br /> know what. As he backed up to make a U-Turn and find a better way to go. Jacque ran, waving <br /> vehemently to the driver to STOP, which he thankfully did. Without her relentless determination to <br /> quickly FIND A ROPE and make sure she stopped the first vehicle that seemed likely to have one, <br /> there would have been no rope to save me in time. <br /> Coincidence #3: The construction van's driver, Cesar Medina, did, in fact, have a long heavy <br /> duty rope! He may not have been fluent in English, but he understood enough to know that his rope <br /> was needed. He ran the rope over to the precipice's edge where now a few guys were eagerly waiting <br /> to grab the tail end of that rope and pull. But first, Cesar saw how steep and deep the embankment <br /> was, he knew that SOMEONE there would have to go down to put the rope around the victim, he turned <br /> to the first guy (Sandy Cypressi) waiting to pull, and said, "YOU go!" Sandy could see that Cesar was <br /> fearful, but he had to reply, "I may look strong, and I AM, but I'm 78, with poor balance control. I won't <br /> be able to do what needs to be done down there. I promise I can lower you down safely, and bring you <br /> back up safely. YOU must go!" Cesar, probably having never before been in a life or death situation, <br /> screwed up his courage, put his arms through the ropes loop, cinched it tight (super! — no need to tie <br /> and untie a knot), and in a few short seconds was lowered into the 4'water. He then turned Mr. Gower <br /> over to get his face out of the water, transferred the rope's loop from his torso to Mr. Gower's (under <br /> the arms) and cinched it. When he signaled, the others, gathered above, began to pull the rope, and <br /> bring me up to level ground. Without Cesar's having the rope, the knowledge of how to use it, the <br /> willingness to be lowered to me, and then signal the lifesavers to pull me up, I would not have been <br /> removed from the water in time. <br /> Coincidence #4: Without Sandy's ability to take Command, there might have been too much <br /> precious time wasted to save me, because of dithering over WHO would be lowered to the canal. His <br /> 7 <br />