Last summer I had a part time job that allowed me to take off time and have the flexibility I needed. I baby-sat three days a week for my two favorite kids in the world. Susannah and Alec. They were close sister and brother siblings. I started baby-sitting them while I was in grade eight. Susannah was in grade one and Alec was three years old. My Mom gave me the job. She knew their Mom, Trish, from being coworkers in the elementary school. For three years I baby-sat for them every Saturday through out the year. I played anything with them and we were the three musketeers. We would walk to one of the two different parks near their house. I would pull them in the wagon or piggyback Alec when he couldn't make it. Baby-sitting for them was not like a job for me, I loved it myself and we always played imaginary games together.

When Trish asked me to baby-sit three days a week, I was thrilled. Trish bought all of us pool passes to the Wave Pool and I would take Susannah and Alec swimming for a couple hours. After swimming we were always so hungry and so Trish gave us money to get a snack. Our favorite stop was on the way home at Dairy Queen. I also had a job at Dairy Queen in grade nine but it was only for the summer so I never grew sick of ice cream. I just came to love it even more.

Susannah and Alec felt the same way and so one day we were at Dairy Queen as usual. We ordered ice cream and a plate of French fries because we were starved. Alec was a little hyper so he was babbling on about how he wanted his ice cream cone to be “Double Sized” even though I told him that didn't even exist. We waited for our order and then sat down by our favorite table in the back. It was near the large window looking out at the parking lot of the plaza. We were all content and Alec was just talking and talking and I wasn't hearing Susannah a lot and then I looked over and she wasn't speaking. I asked, “Susannah, are you OK?” She just looked back at me with wide eyes and couldn't reply. “Are you choking? Are you choking on a fry Susannah?”, I asked. She barely nodded and I was so scared but I had learned the Heimlich manoeuvre before so I stood up and wrapped by arms around her and started to try and get the fry to be swallowed or to get it out. I had to do this for about twenty seconds until she just gasped and I asked again, “Are you OK?”. “I swallowed it”, She answered.

This might have been one of the scariest times in my life because I was the only one with the kids and it's frightening to have that responsibility. We walked back home and Susannah was quiet, Alec kept chattering. I don't really think he realized what had just happened. When we got home Susannah told her Mom what had happened and I knew everything was fine. I don't know how else that situation might have turned out but I know what I did was the right thing. That is the closest I have ever come to saving someone else's life.