MARYSVILLE – José Pérez arrived in Marysville on Aug. 11 to earn enough money in the coming months to fulfill his modest dream of opening a small store in his tiny Mexican village.
The next afternoon, José, 17, drowned in Twin Lakes near Arlington as his father watched helplessly.
As Jaime Pérez prepares to leave for Mexico to accompany his son’s body for burial, he can’t erase from his mind José’s last words: “Me ahogo.” I’m drowning.
The two had gone to the lake with two of José’s uncles. “None of us knew how to swim,” said Jaime Pérez, 39. “We only went to the lake to cool off.”
They picked a spot that looked shallow. The water was waist-level until at least 12 feet from shore, Pérez said.
The last moment Pérez saw his son standing, the teenager was splashing his face with water and walking slowly away from shore. Four or five seconds later, all Pérez saw was José’s face, mouth-up, just barely above the water. Then there was nothing.
Pérez ran through the water toward his son. His feet gave way as he reached the drop-off. He frantically splashed toward shore for fear that he’d drown too.
A half-hour later, Snohomish County sheriff’s department divers found José’s body in about 25 feet of water. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Pérez has been living in Marysville for four months. He was trying to earn enough money from his construction job so his three children remaining in Mexico, aged 11 to 15, could afford school uniforms and books.
“I want them to get an education so they can get a better job and attain a better life than we had,” said Pérez, who worked as a laborer on a corn farm in Mexico and lived in a small rented dirt-floor house. José had to drop out of school after the sixth grade because there was no money to continue his education.
Pérez’s plan was to stay in Snohomish County with his son until the end of 2005 and then go back to the central Mexican village of Santa Rita Tlahuapn.
But when he leaves Friday, it will be for good. He wants to be home to comfort his wife and children through their grieving.
The only memory Pérez will ever have of the last years of his son’s life is in his mind. The family and their friends were too poor to afford a camera, so the sole photograph they have of José is a school picture shot when he was 12.
José’s funeral is Saturday in the village cemetery. Parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Marysville, along with family and friends, raised money to send the teenager’s body to Mexico.
Pérez’s death spurred the county parks department to look into revising how it warns people of possible dangers in parks. That could include more signs and warnings with pictures, so people who do not read English can understand, said county parks director Ron Martin.
Jaime Pérez said he and his son wouldn’t have waded into the lake if they had known there was an abrupt slope so close to shore.
They didn’t see the “Swim at your own risk” and “No lifeguard” signs that are posted near the lake. Even if they had, they wouldn’t have understood what they meant, because they don’t speak English.
“This is very hard for me,” Pérez said. “He was so young and had so many dreams.”
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@ heraldnet.com
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