New Memoir Chronicles Underwater Near-Death Experience

July 4, 2012 - PRLog -- When his regulator failed in 70 feet of water, Ridgley Merritt, Jr. nearly died.

BATON ROUGE, La. - "What would you do if you were 50 feet underwater, gasping for breath, not knowning if this breath were your last?"  So begins Ridgley Merritt, Jr's ONE MOMENT WITH GOD.  

The short but exciting memoir of his near-death experience while scuba diving off the coast of Louisiana with friends.

My life was hanging on by a thread, and I was scared to death.  I was saying to myself,  This is no dream.  Ridgley, you are going to die!  I cried, My God, please let me live and go back home to my wife, Dorothy, and my daughter, Jaime, as she's only five years of age.

The next moment, an amazing image of God appeared a few feet in front of me.  With his mouth closed and lips not moving, it was as if the image was saying, "You can come with me now if you want to."  At this moment I was startled but not scared; my inner self was at peace and my body felt no pain.  This was a miraculous moment.  I asked God to let me go back, and then in response something resembling a tunnel, much like a construction culvert--one that could be seen at a roadside--appeared, as if he were giving me a choice to come with him.