My body tensed and reacted instinctively, trying to hold close the gift my mother had bestowed upon me. Before me the churning void of darkness beckoned and crooned its age old song, a siren call dulling my senses and dreamingly demanding I submit.
Though my arms and legs were afire with the pricks of a billion pins and needles I pushed through their searing heat once more. I gulped a mouthful of air and took that final step into the unknown, just as my wife did moments before me. I kept her image in my mind lighting a dull fire within my soul. The icy water quickly snuffed out the flames feeble warmth as I could no longer hold the spent breath.
As my body's blood fell back to it's last point of retreat, hopelessly abandoning my extremities, my dying brain fired it's last thought across dimming synapses.
"Come experience adventure on an Alaskan cruise..."
