Parents who lost children to hot cars and pool accidents move their suffering forward so others won’t
Sarena Cohen, an events planner and camp director in Baltimore, thought she knew all the ins and outs of pool safety. Her in-laws have a pool, she’s worked in camps, and her family frequently went swimming. All her children, with the exception of two-year-old Aliza, had learned to swim, and Aliza was never allowed to approach a pool without floaties.
“We’re neurotic about pool safety,” Sarena says. “Our family members who live in Florida have double locks on their pool gates and are always super vigilant.”
This past Pesach, she and her extended family rented a home with a pool in the Encore community in Florida. Perhaps it was the “neurotic about safety” aspect of her personality that led her to lie awake the first night of Chol Hamoed, wondering if she’d stored the local Hatzolah’s number in her phone. When she awoke the next morning, her phone was still open to her search, and she updated the information.
After two days of chag, everyone was anxious to get into the pool. A few family members dove right in, some were enjoying sitting around, and Aliza, wearing floaties, sat like a princess on the pool’s tanning ledge.
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