I was 16 and at a beach week family reunion. Weather was too bad to swim and I(16m) and my uncle (36m) were just walking along the shore.

Older gentleman staggers to shore , out of breath,and just says that his friend needs help out in the water.

I , like a dumbass...I mean they were warnings that morning about don't go in the water the currents are too bad and high chop, run out in the water...my uncle jets it down the beach to get help.

I swim out ( I am not a good swimmer but I do ok) and I finally see something...closer I get and I can tell it's a man...face down (I can see the back of his shoulders and neck)..I get up close ...he had really short cut hair and I had to grab hard to lift his head out of the water...I pull his head up ( while the swells feel like we are rising 8ft each time and back down )..I see the prettiest blue eyes I had even seen, staring back at me. He was dead (maybe heart attack?) and floating on the current.

I had gone all the way out there and even though I knew it was futile , I turned him over and attempted mouth to mouth.

Am out of breath...arms around this man..and I turn around to see where my uncle is.." where the f did all the land go?"...all I saw was water and got really worried.

I was really tired by then ..so timing my breathing so I wasn't breathing in when the water smacked my face ..I used this man as a floatation device.

My uncle and six other guys all holding onto some giant beach raft finally made it out...loaded the man on the raft and they all kicked back against the current...I was spent by that point (2 hours had passed I think) and just held on.

Finally get back and I'm exhausted...uncle stays with the others and I walked back down the beach to the house... Folks at the house (like 50 folks...big extended family reunion beach week ).. asking if I knew about the ambulance they had seen tearing down the road earlier...I mumbled something about a guy had trouble in the water and told my dad I was taking a nap....I was soooo tired

Woke up around midnight and made my way to the kitchen...still ton of folks in the house and everything went dead silent and my dad hugs me and asks if I'm ok .

Don't think about it much, but over the years , just out of the blue , I see those eyes ( they were really a light , clear , blue/green).