A Tragic Event Leads to a Connection to Water in Vermont

Submitted as part of the Women Mind the Water Digital Stories Project.

"When I was five years old, my mother’s parents came to Vermont to visit us for my birthday because we had just recently moved from Brooklyn, NY to Vermont. So we were going to a local swimming hole. And so I went in a friend’s car, my friend Amy. Of course I wanted to go with my other five-year-old friend as opposed to going with my family. It was really exciting.

So my mother and my grandparents and my older sister Christine who was six at the time and my sister Katie who was two at the time were in their car. And then we wound up, we waited for pretty much a long time and I noticed the mother Rita was getting relatively nervous. She said, “I wonder where your mom is?” And I said, “You know I think my mom got in a car accident.” And she yelled at me. And I think she did because she was anxious.

And so, I don’t recall what happened after that but the next recollection I have was being at the hospital, that my father in the hospital bed with my younger sister Katie. That’s when my father told me that mother, my sister Christine and my grandparents had passed away in a car accident.

And so for me water is very spiritual for me ‘cause my father actually ended up burying my mother, sister, and grandparents at a cemetery that is just like adjacent to the swimming hole, Stoughton Pond. There’s a cemetery right next to Stoughton Pond. And so, they eventually made it there [Stoughton Pond]. So it’s a very beautiful place to me. I find it, water, very healing. It probably sounds really weird, I don’t know. But for me, it’s where they wanted to be and to enjoy this time. And so whenever I go, I make any attempt to go to an ocean or to a pond or to a lake because for me it’s where they wanted to be and it’s where I feel connected to my family.

Aimee DiGiulio, Stoughton Pond, Vermont. As a consequence of the fatal accident involving a truck, Aimee has sought to provide healing to others through counseling. She is licensed as a counselor in both substance use and mental health disorders. Currently, she is a PhD student in Leadership and Change with a Healthcare focus at Antioch University."

 

Asset ID: 7906

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