RE: How close have you been to Death?
I was climbing a tree in the woods near my house when I was about 13. 2/3rds of the way up the tree I grabbed a branch and it was dead. The branch snapped and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I had landed on a slope, so I just slid down the hill and laid there waiting on intense pain. It never came. I was fine and when I looked right beside where I landed, there was a large stick that was stuck in the ground a foot or so with about two feet sticking above the ground. I almost got impaled.
Then when I was around 20, I was riding my motorcycle to my older sister's house and came around a blind curve. I didn't see the gravel in the road until it was too late. I remember the bike sliding out from under me and I pushed it away as I slid across the pavement into a large ditch. I hit the ditch back first and my helmet slammed into the ground. It sounded like a shotgun went off inside the damn thing. I laid there for a couple minutes dazed and then the sound of the bike idling woke me up. I checked for broken bones, none, got up and dragged the bike out of the ditch. It bent the handle bars back into the tank and dented it, bent the right side blinkers back and popped the headlight out. I pulled the bars up, pulled the blinkers out and let the headlight hang while I rode it to my sister's house. After I got going again a large bird flew up out of the grass on the side of the road and slammed into my helmet. Thank God the face shield was closed. It almost succeeded in knocking me off the bike, but somehow I held on and pulled over. I couldn't see anything through the blood, guts and oils all over my face shield. I cleaned it off the best I could and, reluctantly, I continued to her house and finally made it. I fixed the headlight, checked the bike over (nothing else wrong, the highway bars and saddlebags saved it) and then started inspecting my clothing. The leather jacket I was wearing was ripped through on my right shoulder, my jeans were ripped and torn, my gloves had holes in them and my boots were scraped through. Amazingly, not a single scratch on me, but I was incredibly sore the next morning. Twice I can vividly remember coming close to death, but thankfully it wasn't my time.