(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. In the 1980s, Brad Jachna worked as a carpenter in Florida alongside his friend, Kip.
BRAD JACHNA: We were the bad guy biker type. You know, the tattoos, the long hair, the earrings. Everybody always thought we were tough.
INSKEEP: While they were building a house one day, they saw a toddler, Tom Copeland, fall into a nearby pond. More than 30 years later, Jachna reunited with Copeland at StoryCorps.
JACHNA: I looked out the window and saw you out playing by the water. I didn't like it but went back to work. Happened to look out the window again and I didn't see you. And then all of a sudden, I saw a little glimmer in the water, you know, a little splashing movement. And I turned and looked at Kip, and I said, the kid is in the water. We were on the second floor, and the stairs weren't in yet, so we just jumped off and ran. And Kip dives in. I went around. And I remember I grabbed you and picked you up. And you were limp. You were not breathing.
TOM COPELAND: I must've been under the water for a scary amount of time.
JACHNA: It seemed like a long time, but it only could've been seconds. And I was slapping you on the back, and you started coughing, and I heard you catch that first breath of air.
COPELAND: It's pretty clear to me that without you and Kip being there working on that house that day, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. Did you and Kip talk a lot about that day as the years went on?
JACHNA: He had the newspaper's article in his shop on the wall. And it was in a frame. And we'd talk about it. Once in a while, you know, well, I wonder what happened to him, you know, I wonder what he's doing. So I happened to look up your name, and sure as all heck, you came up. And I see a grown young man, and damn, maybe I did have something to do with something good. So that's when I messaged you.
COPELAND: Of course, I hadn't known anything about you up to that point. So it was really exciting to hear from you. Can you tell me a little bit about your friend Kip? I never had the opportunity to meet him, and sadly, I won't.
JACHNA: He's been gone two years. I loved him like a brother. He was one hell of a loving father. And he had a raspy voice, you know, and he would talk loud. There was no whisper in that man. So if he had a secret, he had to leave the building, not the room.
COPELAND: (Laughter). What do you think Kip might say if he had a chance to meet me?
JACHNA: I know he'd give you a hug and say he's happy. I'm just glad that you're alive and breathing, and Kip and I both had a small part in it. I have not been the nicest person that people would want to meet. I'm a bigmouth. But it makes me feel good inside, for something that didn't take five minutes, but it's lasted a lifetime.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLIVER RICHARD DEAKIN AND LYLA FOY-PHILLIPS SONG, "TWISTED HEART")
INSKEEP: Wow. Brad Jachna on reuniting with Tom Copeland, the boy he saved from drowning more than 30 years ago. Their StoryCorps conversation is archived at the Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLIVER RICHARD DEAKIN AND LYLA FOY-PHILLIPS SONG, "TWISTED HEART") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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