How God Saved My Life PDF Print Email
by Richard Boll -- Ft. Lauderdale, Florida  -  Thursday, 13 March 2008
North America / Caribbean >> USA Florida

Miracles happen every day. Just ask Richard Boll. God used three horses and a loving team of people to rescue him from drowning and save his life.

I am writing you this while recovering from home and not writing from heaven. This is because God saved my life through three of His amazing animals, horses.
 
On Thursday, February 28, 2008, I asked my boss to get off work early so I could help mow the church lawn. I just wanted to do my part. I arrived at the building in the late afternoon and after some minor maintenance on the tractor, I buckled myself in with the seatbelt and began cutting the grass.
 
Roughly an hour into the job, I started cutting around the lake. This is always a nervous part of the cut because the grass is on an incline and you do not want to go into the lake. At a steeper part of the bank (about a two foot drop off) I felt the ground give way and the big rear tires of the mower slide down into the edge of the lake.
 
The mower was still running so I was trying in every way to get it to climb back on to the grass. That was when the mower flipped straight over 180 degrees. I landed upside down completely submerged in about waist deep of water strapped to the commercial riding lawn mower. Thank God for the roll bar! It saved my life, as I would have been crushed without its protection.
 
When I realized what had happen, I urgently tried to unhook the seat belt. The problem was I could not find the seatbelt release button that was behind my seat on the left side. After I calmed myself down, I tried to find the release button again but still no release button could be found. This may have been in part due to the location of the release button and the murky water combined with the carpal tunnel in my hands that have lost feeling in their first three fingers.
 
Regardless, I decided at that point my efforts might be best directed elsewhere if I wanted to breathe. I could feel the bottom of the lake with my feet so I tried to kick off the bottom to turn the tractor over on its side so at least I could get my head out of the water. I pushed with all my might but this also proved to be a poor use of air and energy as it was just too heavy.
 
With air running out I decided to stretch myself out and up as far as I could toward the surface. With my arms extended I was able to make a splash. I started splashing and splashed enough air down to my mouth to get out with my last breath my last two cries for "HELP…HELP!"
 
Then I just relaxed back under the mower and thought, “There is nobody around here to hear me... nobody saw me go into the lake. This is going to look really bad; someone is going to find me dead in this lake and strapped to this lawn mower. Wow, so this is how it’s going to happen.... I am going to die...I going to find out what is on the other..." and I blacked out.
 
Some people report seeing a white light when they die. Well, I did not see any light. I think because, really I did not die, although I was sure in the HOV lane and well on my way with not breathing and all.
 
The next thing I remember is hearing the sirens fading up in volume. Then I head a voice calling me to open my eyes, "Sir open your eyes, look at me, open your eyes sir, look at me, sir...". I slowly opened my eyes, "Look at me sir", and I focused on the eyes of the person looking at me and saw a smile come over his face and heard him say, "Oh, you're going to be OK.”
 
I had no idea what had happened. My mind was a blur and I was feeling very dizzy. When I realized there was a lot of commotion going on around me with the EMS, police and fire rescue, I asked, "What happened?" When I heard, "You had an accident on the lawn mower and fell into the lake” it all came back to me and I yelled "You mean I'm still alive!"
 
The whole way to the hospital in the ambulance I was exclaiming how I should be dead. There was nothing I could do or say that was enough to express how grateful I was to be alive (nor is there still to this day). In the ambulance as they were putting the I.V. in my arm, the paramedic said, "Sir, you're going to feel a stick now,” and I think I said, "Thank you, I welcome feeling a stick because I should be dead! Man, I should be dead.” But God had something else in the works.
 
The events as others have told me so far:
 
There was no person around who saw me flip over into the lake. But God did. For there were three horses whose stalls are just across the other side of the short end of the lake. Apparently they were eating when the mower flipped over into the lake. Maybe one of them saw me; I am not sure if all three were eating yet.
 
Mary Nevling, one of the horse owners, happened to stop by at that time to care for them. She had just fed her horse who she says, “Eats like the cereal kid ‘Mikey’ and is never distracted from food.”
 
Suddenly all three horses pulled away from their food and started running, bucking, and whinnying in their paddocks, making enough commotion to cause Mary to come around from the stall where she was working and see why these normally calm horses were so upset.
 
Mary then HEARD MY TWO CRYS FOR HELP and looked toward the lake and saw the mower upside down with me drowning. She then screamed for help to Ron LaFlamme, a neighbor who is in Florida only short times of the year.
 
Ron told me later, “It was a miracle that I was home at that time of the day and on that day. I never come home early; it must have been at least two years since I’ve been home at that time.”
 
Hearing the panic in Mary’s voice, Ron ran to the fence where Mary told him what had just happened. He then jumped the fence and quickly ran around and met Mary at the edge of the lake. There was the mower in the now quiet water with my John Deere hat floating next to it.
 
“He must have gotten out.” Mary said.
 
“No. He is under the mower!” exclaimed Ron and he quickly ran into the lake toward the mower.
 
When Ron reached the mower he tried to pull me out but I would not budge. He then pushed the heavy mower over on its side and while holding my head out of the water he then discovered the seatbelt. He followed the belt and found the red button and released me from my prison.
 
“Thank God they make the button red, because the water was really murky,” Ron told me.
 
Meanwhile, Mary ran out into the nearby street yelling with all her strength and waving her hands. In a white van that had just passed by were an off-duty police officer, Al Romero, and his eleven-year-old daughter Jackie. Jackie saw Mary screaming and shouted for her dad to stop! Al stopped the van as Mary ran up and said, “You have to help Ron. Someone is drowning in the lake!”
 
Al jumped out and ran to the lake scene. Ron started to pull my unconscious body up to the shore but needed some help. Al ran down to the lake where both he and Ron were able to roll my now blue-faced body up on the grass.
 
As they both were rolling me, I started spitting out water and began breathing on my own.
 
“That’s a good sign, he’s going to make it,” Al said.
 
Al helped pump some more water out of my system then he got me to open my eyes. Al's smile was the first thing I saw when I came to and I will never forget it. I now believe God’s smile will be the first thing I’ll see in heaven.
 
There is no way I can explain my rescue except that it was orchestrated by God. He loves us so much and works in ways we do not understand. God even works through His animals and circumstances way beyond our control.
 
I hope this feeble attempt of communicating all that God has done for me reminds you that He would have done the same thing for you. Please allow that fact to encourage your heart.
 
“No way, not me!” you say. Please let me remind you God already has proved He would do the same thing for you. We see this in John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
 

I look forward to seeing all of you and speaking to all of you in heaven, but not just yet. Until then, I will appreciate even the quickest phone voice message and relationship in a whole new way.

Richard Boll (far right) is pictured above with his family.

 
Last Updated:   Sunday, 16 March 2008
 
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