On Sunday, August 7th, heaven gained another angel. His name was Caleb Thomas Schwab, son of Kansas state representative Scott Schwab. He was a 10 year old boy from my hometown, Olathe Kansas, who died on the world's tallest waterslide. This waterslide is named Verruckt, which is German for "insane". It is located at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas. I have ridden this waterslide twice.

2014:

2015:

Verruckt really does live up to its name. It's taller than both Niagara Falls AND the Statue of Liberty. You have to climb 264 steps to get to the top. The 3 person raft water slide makes a 168 foot drop at 70 mph (that's 17 stories), followed by a 5 story hill and a 50 foot descent into a pool. Riders must be at least 54 inches tall and are held into the seats with two separate velcro straps. There are ropes for riders to hold inside the raft.

The ride first opened in the summer of 2014. Living close by at the time, I visited Schlitterbahn the weekend after it opened. First of all, the ride had reservations. I kid you not, eager riders had to get to the park early enough in the morning, hurry to the bottom of the slide, and sign up for a time to ride it. Reservations usually ran out in 30 minutes. (This was in 2014 and 2015, so I'm unsure if they still did reservations this summer.) To be able to ride, you had two options. You could either reserve a time at the beginning of the day, or get in a separate single-rider line that had a four hour wait time. (Now you understand why I choose the wake-up early option.) I reserved a time, they gave me a wristband with 3:30 written on it, and I went back to enjoy the rest of the park. When it was 3:30, I came back and they put me with two other ladies I didn't know. Before doing anything else, the lifeguards had us stand on this giant scale. I remember them being really strict about the weight. If you were even a pound under or over the required weight (400-550 pounds). They would switch your group members out until the range was met.

After weighing us, they brought us over to the end of the staircase and read us terms and conditions. They made us agree verbally to the possibility of many things happening. I don't remember if they included death. What they read off to us was two pages long and we had to say yes several times. They finally let us start the ascent up the staircase. I remember climbing the stairs and feeling so excited. I was a little scared when I read the signs along the journey of facts about the height and the progress we had made. The first time I climbed these stairs, it was no problem. The second time, I thought I was going to keel over and pass out. There was just so many and I remember barely being able to breathe because I'm out of shape. I couldn't imagine if I had weighed more! I did regret my decision when I reached the top of the stairs the second time. I remember repeating over and over to my friend that I couldn't do it and I regret my decision. Anyway, you get to the top of the stairs and there is another giant scale at the top. The lifeguards up there have each group of three stand on the scale again to make sure your combined weight is in the correct range. There were some people that couldn't finish the trek up the stairs and gave up and came back down. There were groups that were sent back down the stairs because their weight was off. Like I said, both times I went the lifeguards were strict about who they would allow to ride the waterslide based on weight and height.

Finally, you're allowed to sit in the raft on this raised roller platform. This is what it looks like:

I sat in the middle both times that I rode the ride, being the person with the "middle" weight. We had to sit by weight with the lightest rider in the front. The seats have high backs and the straps that hold you in are velcro straps. Literally straps made entirely out of velcro, one across your lap and one over your shoulder across your chest. It looks like this:

After strapping you in, the gate in front opens, the raft moves forward, then it drops over the edge at 70 miles an hour. Coming from a thrill-seeker, it's really not as scary as I thought it would be. The second time around, my stomach didn't even drop. Going down the slide you get this enormous pressure from shooting downwards. It presses your head against the seat back and if you bring your head forward, it's very painful. I hold my hands up on every roller coaster but I decided not to on this one for fear of my hands getting caught in the netting. The lifeguards tell you to hold the ropes. The ride is over in seconds, you're not even sure what happened because it's so fast, and you get out as quickly as you can.

This short video will give you a better idea of what the whole experience entails:

Caleb Thomas Schwab died on his descent down this very same waterslide that I rode. The tallest waterslide in the world. Not just in North America, but the entire world. The waterslide that I rode twice with no problem. The only water ride that required reservations, terms and conditions, and netting to keep your raft from flying out. After attending church Sunday morning, the Schwab family headed to Schlitterbahn, uneasy about cloudy skies. Caleb and Nate reportedly planned on riding Verrückt together to experience the thrill. Eyewitness reports by Sandrarose.com say the brothers were weighed on a scale at the bottom of the Verrückt tower and once again at the top. They were then told they could not ride the raft together with a third person because the combined weight of all three riders would not meet the 400 pound minimum weight needed for the raft. Nathan then proceeded to descend the tower while Caleb rode the waterslide with two adult women he did not know.

Reports say that after the second hill Caleb's straps failed, the raft didn't weigh enough, and the front of the raft went airborne. What happened next is graphic. According to witnesses, he was decapitated by one of the metal rods holding the netting up, on his way down the second hill. (The police report says that he was killed by fatal neck injury, but nothing else has been confirmed as of August 11th.) As he was waiting for him at the end of the slide, his older brother saw the horrific incident, screaming in terror. Leslie Castaneda, of Kansas City told KMBC that he said to a worker, "I just saw my little brother die because of one of your attractions", before running off to find his mom. This high energy, sweet, innocent little boy with a future ahead of him was vanished forever.

Countless people are in shock and pain this week from this tragic accident. I am still in astonishment that a ride I have been on has been the source of a death of an innocent child. One of the hardest things for me is the fact that this family, this kid, went to my home church, Life Mission Church. The family's spokesperson is Clint Sprague, the pastor of this church. I probably sat in the same room with this kid for church several Sundays. My timeline has blown up from the amount of hurting people expressing their condolences. One mother wrote a letter to his parents:

"In the moment that Caleb had his accident, he saw the face of Jesus and it took his breath away. As he was sliding over that hill, he slid into the arms of the Lord. Even when he was at the top of the Verruckt waiting his turn, God had already seen this moment; He had already been there. Your son did not die alone."

Rick Lukianuk, the chief administrator at Heritage Christian Academy where Caleb was expected to start the fifth grade this year, said that the 10-year-old was known for his leadership and integrity and he would be missed. "When I see a little gap and I look at that class, what would be the fifth grade class now, and don't see his face in there it'll hit me more," Lukianuk told local news station KSHB.

What beautiful words in the face of a tragedy. I cannot even begin to fathom what those parents, family, and friends felt when they heard the news. Can you imagine being the two women behind him that felt helpless? Or the lifeguards at the top of the tower that have no words for how they feel? Think about how the ride designer feels, or the nurse that ran to his body, or the owner of Schlitterbahn, or even nearby witnesses. What a horrifying thing to live through. The scariest thing to think about is that could've been me. My straps could have failed. I could have died before the age of 20, before I reached college. When you race down that waterslide at highway speeds, you're not thinking about what you're going to do with your life, but what others are going to do without it. You're praying for forgiveness and safety from Jesus, God, AND the Holy Spirit. The most startling fact is that you can't see below you on the first drop, but you can look out at the whole park from the second hill. That means that Caleb most likely saw his impending death before it came and literally had no way to stop it.

I send my deepest condolences to the family, as they are showered in tears of support and parents' aching prayers. This family will never fully recover from their sweet little boy being torn from this Earth. To show your support, please pray for the family. Financial support has been so overwhelming that the GoFundMe donation page has already closed due to twice as many donations than needed.