It was back in the winter of 1997 when I thought my time on this earth was up. I was returning home to Marshall from a basketball tournament at Russian Mission. I was told by my other teammates not to travel in the stormy weather alone but nobody else wanted to come home with me. I had to come home because I would not be able to stand another night in Russian Mission. I got ready and called my house to tell them I was on my way home.

While driving through the portages it seemed that the storm had settled down, so my fear was laid to rest, at least I thought it was. But as soon as I hit the tundra trail my eyes were blinded by the ferocious wind of the snow storm. Every exposed part of my body seemed as if it was getting bit by a great white shark. I stopped for while and tried to figure out where I was and where I was going but I could not tell. The visibilty was only a couple of feet. I tried to cover any area of my body that felt cold. My adrenaline was flowing as I got scared and mad at the same time. That feeling forced me to move on even though I didn't really know where I was going to end up and the only real survival skill I had to depend on was the word of prayer, and I humbly asked for His guidance. As confident as I felt I was going in the right direction, I still had my doubts that I would get home.

A while later I thought it was a good time to check how much gas I had left. I was almost on empty so I thought the most logical thing to do in that situation was stop. I turned off my snowmachine and sat on the opposite side of where the wind was coming from. As I sat staring into oblivion I wondered when this living hell would stop?

The time that I was sitting there felt like hours and my stomach was getting very hot and I started to see weird illusions like elephants and kegs of beer passing by me. I also saw a figure of a man with a staff in his hand. I was curious so I started walking toward him, but he just disappeared as the sound of snowmachines came near me. I looked around and there was the Marshall Search and Rescue team. I went home with them but I had to stay a while in the Bethel Hospital for my hypothermic symptoms.

I still wonder what the big black figure was that I encountered out there. What he was doing at the scene, and why, I do not know. Some say he was Death.