Saving My Niece Juliet Claire Ronzino

This is a true story about how I saved my niece from drowning

Saving My Niece Juliet Claire Ronzino

 

It was a warm summer day in mid July. My alarm clock went off, but I ignored it. The previous night, I had been up for quite a while working on some new lyrics since I’m a songwriter as well as a musician and singer.

My younger sister came in my room at that moment. She was already dressed in a white tank top with a baby

blue skirt. I blinked sleepily.

“Come on, Tiffany, wake up,” groaned my sister.

Yawning, I sat up and stretched before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and replied, “Kylie, why do I have to get up now?”

“Because you have a job to do,” Kylie replied.

“What job?”

“Jillian is coming to drop off Juliet so you can baby-sit her while Jillian goes to work,”

I shooed my sister out of my room and quickly got dressed, ate a pop tart, brushed my hair and teeth, and put deodorant on, before I waited in the kitchen. Jillian was our older sister. She was 25 years old and she worked as a dental assistant in Bellows Falls. She’s engaged to a wonderful guy named Josh Ronzino and she has a four-year-old daughter named Juliet from a previous relationship. Juliet adores Josh so much that she calls him ‘Daddy’, which is cute!

At around 7:34, Jillian’s car pulled into the driveway. After getting Juliet out of the car, they made their way to the front door. I opened the door for them.

“Hey,” I replied.

“Hey Tiff, where’s Kylie?” Jillian asked.

“She got invited to go with Jessica and her family to a bowling alley and afterwards they are going out for ice cream.” I explained.

I smiled at Juliet, who was in the middle of setting her flip-flops in the shoe tray in the kitchen. Then, she came running into my arms for a hug.

“Auntie!” she exclaimed.

“Hey you,” I giggled as I swung her around. Juliet laughed and clapped her hands together. Jillian smiled.

“I was going to leave Juliet at Mimi’s today, but she insisted on coming here instead.”

I grinned. “That’s because she wants to hang out with her favorite aunt!” I joked.

Jillian smiled. “She really adores you, Tiffany,” she replied.

“I have the best Auntie ever!!” Juliet said.

“Yes you do,” her mother agreed. She checked her watch. “I have to go to work, but I’ll pick her up around 4:20.”

“Okay.”

Jillian kissed Juliet goodbye before turning to me. “Are you sure you want to spend today babysitting for me?”

“We’ll be fine,” I reassured my sister warmly.

“Okay, see you this afternoon.” Jillian replied. She gave me a warm hug and a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jill.”

For the first half hour, Juliet and I played house using some baby dolls that my sisters and I played with when

we were younger. After a quick snack of sliced fruits, Juliet asked if she could go outside and play.

“Sure, but be careful and don’t wander too far away.”

Juliet skipped outside and I went into the kitchen to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and throw away the rubbish that was on the kitchen counter. It took me about three minutes to finish. I thought it was unusual that I didn’t hear Juliet outside. Usually she’s laughing and giggling and chasing after butterflies and picking flowers. Puzzled, I decided to go outside and check on her.

I made my way out to the front yard. When I called her name and got no answer, I hurried to the backyard. We have an in ground pool, but I never imagined that Juliet would go anywhere near the pool. Just to be on the safe side, I made my way over to the pool area.

When I got there I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary at first. There was a little pink flip-flop near the edge of the pool. At that point, I got really worried and hurried over to the shoe. Looking down into the pool, I

saw a small child lying facedown at the bottom. My heart dropped and I felt like throwing up when I realized with a shock that it was my four-year-old niece in the deep end of the pool!!!

Without a second thought, I dove in, took her in my arms, and made my way to the surface. Kicking furiously, I got us out of the pool. Then I laid her on her back and checked to see if she was breathing and conscious. I felt her wrist for a pulse, but felt nothing. Just then, I heard my dad calling my name.

“Dad, Juliet fell in the pool!!” I shouted.

The next thing I saw was my dad sprinting over to me.

“Does she have a pulse?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I couldn’t feel one.”

“I’ll start CPR, you go call 911.”

My heart beating wildly, I raced into the house and grabbed the portable phone and made the call for help.

“This is 911, do you have an emergency?”

“Yeah, I’m calling from 233 Forest Road, my four year old niece fell in the family pool and she’s not breathing.”

“Okay I have medics on the way ma’am, are you with your niece now?”

“No my dad is,”

“Can you see if she’s breathing?”

I hurried outside and back to the pool.  My dad was still administering CPR to Juliet. His face was full of determination and concern.

“She’s still unconscious,” I reported to the dispatcher.

“Can your dad talk to me?”

I quickly put the phone on speaker. “Hi sir, this is 911, do you need someone to do CPR for you?”

“No I’m an EMT,” my dad replied. Suddenly I heard Juliet whimper. It was the most beautiful sound I ever heard.

“She’s starting to come around,” I replied.

“Okay, you can hang up now and wait for the rescue squad to get to your location.”

I thanked the dispatcher and hung up the phone. Then, I grabbed my dad’s EMT bag and hurried back over to him.

My dad told me to take over in CPR while he took some equipment out of his EMT bag to help Juliet. It seemed like forever for the rescue squad to get there, but in reality it was only two minutes. I recognized the EMTs who responded to the call since they work with my dad. One of them was Kevin Peterson and the other one was Brian Richards. The three of them worked together in getting Juliet loaded into the ambulance before racing to the hospital. My dad got out his portable radio and radioed ahead to the nearest hospital.

“This is Medic 22, we have a patient coming in from a near drowning accident, her respirations are fair, but we still went ahead with the transport just to be on the safe side.”

After a few moments, we decided to go to the hospital. When we got there, I called my sisters to let them know what happened. I was so scared for my niece and was worried that Jill would be mad at me.

When Jill arrived at the hospital with her fiancé Josh, I went over to her.

“Dad told me that you were the one who pulled Juliet out of the pool and helped give her CPR.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

“Thank you,” she whispered before pulling me into a tight embrace.

At that moment, the doctor came out and told us that if it hadn't been for my dad and I giving Juliet CPR, the story would more than likely have much more graver consequences.

That was a year ago. Some things are still the same: we still have the in-ground pool with the fence around it and a padlock, Juliet is full of smiles and giggles and she charms the hearts of everyone she meets. There is one thing that has changed: my bond with Juliet. She knows I'm the one that saved her life. She always says that she wants to be "just like auntie" when she grows up. Juliet calls me her hero, which makes my heart melt. I don't consider myself a hero at all. I was simply acting out of love for my niece. To me, it was something I don't believe deserves praise; I was just at the right place at the right time. I can honestly say with my whole heart and soul that I love and treasure my niece more than ever and that our bond is, and forever will be unbreakable.

 

 

Reviews

[soliloquy]

This is well done! As well as gut wrenching and emotional. I found myself really getting into this one.

Wow....how precious life really is.

[write4ever]

thanks! it was VERY intense for me to write and I cried while writing it!

[soliloquy]

I'm sure it was. Thanks for sharing.

[write4ever]

this was one of the most emotional experiances of my life, but i am happy to say that my niece is happy, healthy, and doing well!! Last Halloween, she became a big sister to her brother Jordan Ezra Ronzino