8 Hours

When you come close to death, your viewpoint on things suddenly changes. You start to realize things that you never did before. You start to understand why things did or did not happen. People say that before you die, your whole life flashes before you. I'm here to tell you that that is true, every good and bad thing you ever did flashes before your eyes. Those flashbacks are easy to deal with when you know you are going to die, but what about when you survive? What do you do with that information? I'm not entirely sure how to answer those questions. But I can tell you about my near-death experience, I can tell you that May 22, 2020, is a day that I will never forget. Before beginning to tell you about  what happened on that day, I will fill you in on some of the details that led up to that Friday morning.

That Friday morning started like any morninvg would for me, I hit the snooze button a few times dreading the fact that &I had to get up. The day before, I had completed the biggest project since opening my pressure washing business, to say the least I was exhausted. I got washed up, got dressed and ate breakfast. I was on my way to touch up a job that I had completed the week prior. All things considered, the morning was going well, you see, my wife had left me about a month ago and stopped communicating with me. For some reason, I was in a particularly good mood. The customers house that I was going to, was about 25 minutes away. I had to stop at the local Lowe's store to pick up some supplies. I was the first one there and the first one to be checked out.

The drive to the customers house from Lowe's was the usual morning traffic in Ocala Florida, nothing out of the ordinary. When I got to the property, I started to go through my pre-work checklist, for a walk around the property, identifying possible roadblocks in completing this job and being in the pressure washing field, I was looking for the nearest water bib. I got the machine all hooked up and ready to go, and I start to wash the house. I work my way from the back of the house to the front of the house, soaping up from the bottom and rinsing down from the top as I did every property. When I got to the front, I noticed that I was out of soap and had to refill my bucket, so I replenish my supplies and got back to work.

At this point, it was time for me to start working on to the front of the House. I started at the garage because it was pretty dirty and work my way towards the front door, I notice that the front door is pretty dirty and so was the landing. I start to spray water towards the front door and as I step on the landing of the front door my foot gives way, and I fall forward and hit my Head on the concrete. This is where the story gets interesting, when I fall and hit the ground immediately, I knew something was very wrong. As I lay there face down on the concrete, I try with all of my strength to get up, but my body is not moving. At this moment I also realized that I cannot feel anything from the neck down. For some reason, panic did not set in immediately. I stopped trying to move and just laid there thinking that this would wear off with some rest and I would be able to get up, but little did I know that this was just the beginning of the worst day of my life.