Hi everyone,
The summer of 2010 isn’t even a month old and Greater Danbury has already lost five souls to drownings.
On Monday, 37-year-old William Donovan of Sandy Hook became the latest victim to lose his life in local waters. According to friends, Donovan jumped off a pontoon boat in Lake Lillinonah to chase a noodle float that had blown overboard.
Two more people – 23-year-old Juan Lopez of Jamaica, N.Y., and 16-year-old Maria Sanchez Montoya of Mahopac, N.Y. – drowned in the Housatonic River last month near Bull’s Bridge in Kent.
Two others – 57-year-old Marian Mikolajczyk of New Milford and 85-year-old Ursula Lerse of New York City – drowned in Candlewood Lake over the past two weeks.
In the sheer randomness of these drownings, the only constant is the finality of it all.
For these victims.
For their families.
For anyone who ever shared a laugh with them at the supermarket, or maybe, a big holiday dinner with mismatched chairs pulled around the table.
Suddenly, memories become more precious than any bank account, any treasure tucked inside a dresser drawer.
Donovan’s friend and neighbor, Mark Streck, figured the noodle that lured Donovan from the boat wasn’t more than five feet away.
It wasn’t far.
It was just far enough.
By all accounts, Donovan was a good swimmer, a man who had spent countless hours on the lake boating and swimming and making those mental snapshots for his little girl, Gabriella, and his wife, Laura.
Although we still don’t know how Donovan drowned – how could a healthy man slip under the water so close to safety – it won’t change anything.
Or will it?
To read more about William Donovan and the other four souls who’ve drowned in Greater Danbury this summer, read my “Take on Life” column Wednesday.
Only in the print edition of The News-Times.
The ripple is the shock wave from those STUPID guns that the Candlewod Lake Authority carries. Get rid of them.
Comment by Concerned — July 7th, 2010 @ 7:44 am
Your response re: the guns for the CLA to an article about how 5 families have lost their loved ones is beyond absurd.
These families will try to find answers and explanations but there will not be many. Drowning must be taken seriously and even the most experienced swimmers are not immune from the dangers or drowning. Bill Donovan’s death seems the most perplexing but if there is anything the rest of us can learn is that water safety is not to be taken lightly. Let’s hope that people are more cautious around the lakes and waterways now and more deaths may be prevented.
Comment by Pat Will — July 7th, 2010 @ 2:39 pm