B.C. man reunites with Nova Scotia stranger, 56 years after being saved from drowning

SYDNEY, N.S. -

After driving near the water that winter day, Brian Lavery thought he saw a dog splashing in the waves – then realized it was way too cold for that.

“And so I looked back,” Brian recalls. “And I just saw these little arms and legs going.”

Without thinking, Brian raced into the frigid water until it reached his chest, and found a small child floating facing down.

“It was traumatic,” Brian says. “I was afraid that when he stopped moving… something terrible had happened.”

When Brian turned the small body over, he saw a little boy’s face.

“He was as red as a beet and then he let out a blast of air,” says Brian, who cradled the boy in his arms and carried him safely to shore. “You know it was a gift. I was so grateful.”

That was 1968, when Brian was barely 18. The boy he saved, Michael Pickup, had just turned two.

“And that was the last I saw Michael,” Brian says. “Until about three weeks ago.”

Now grown up, Michael had come across an old newspaper article about the incident, with the headline “Child Is Saved From Drowning,” and realized this was far more than just a story about him being an adventurous toddler.

“Had it not been for this guy, I would have been dead,” Michael says from his office in Victoria. “I wouldn’t be here today.”

So Michael started searching for Brian online from B.C., before finding him in Nova Scotia, then flying across the country so they could meet each other the first time in 56 years.

“It was like we had know each other with out knowing each other,” Michael says. “It was really quite lovely.”

“It was moving,” Brian adds.

While Brian had received multiple thank you letters from Michael’s family at the time, calling him “brave” and “a miracle,” Michael finally got to express his gratitude in person, calling Brian a hero.

“That touches you in a way you can’t put into words,” Brian says.

Michael says the experience inspired him to pay it forward by helping others. Along with working as B.C.’s auditor general, he was recently recognized with a King’s Coronation Medal for outstanding public service.

“This is my second chance,” Michael says. “And I’m going to make the best of it in every single thing I do.”

Brian says he ended-up saving two other people from drowning over the years, teaching him that life is precious.

“You can’t live in the past, you can’t live in the future,” Brian says. “You only have the present.”

So cherish every moment, Brian says, and always help others do the same.