Quick action by George Markel, an 11-year-old Goose Rock Elementary student, may have saved the life of his four-year-old cousin Sunday.
The two boys were returning from an afternoon fishing trip when four-year-old Rickey Smith fell from a footing into water over his head and disappeared from sight. He was unable to swim.
George, who was about a head taller, and could “swim a little” jumped in behind him and helped him to an abandoned car body where they both climbed to safety.
“Rickey came up once coughing and crying,” George said. “And I jumped in to get him out. The water was so cold it almost took my breath.”
“When I got to him he grabbed hold of my arm kinda tight and I pulled him over to the car. He was crying and coughing and I guess he was kinda scared.”
Glenn, a nine-year-old brother of Rickey, also jumped into the water but George had already got hold of the young Smith and pulling him to safety so he waded back out.
“The water only came up to here; George said, putting his hand just below his neck as he stood up to demonstrate the depth of the creek beneath the bridge.
Young Markel and his brothers were spending Sunday with their cousins, children of Raymond Smith at Chop Bottom, about four miles south of Manchester.
The accident occurred as the three young boys were crossing the old washed-out low water bridge at Chop Bottom after leaving their older brothers fishing at the farm pond.
“We left our poles and stuff with them,” George said. “It was getting about dark.”
They were about half-way across and on a foot log between two of the old slabs of bridge concrete when Rickey slipped. Water below the bridge was a little over the head of the four foot youngster.
It was not until the boys came in dripping wet that any adult in the area knew what had happened.
“I guess he owes his life to you,” Mrs. Jewell Smith, his mother said after she had learned the story.
Rickey, thankful for the help, but mindful of the danger, simply said he wouldn’t go fishing with them anymore.
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