A Story of Survival, Faith, and the Strength to Keep Going

In My Lifeguard Walks on Water, Dr. Patrice Winkel looks back on a lifetime marked by moments that could have ended very differently.

Her story begins with childhood medical complications and a surgery that damaged a facial nerve, followed years later by thyroid cancer and an isolating course of radioactive treatment. She recalls frightening automobile accidents, a fall that caused a traumatic brain injury and threatened the doctorate she had worked so hard to complete, and a terrifying encounter with the Pacific Ocean that left her fighting to survive beneath the waves.

The journey continues through an unexpected reaction during a family visit to Seattle, a serious glass injury during an Iowa storm, and a devastating escalator accident that caused extensive physical trauma and required months of recovery.

Yet this is more than a record of survival.

Throughout the memoir, Patrice returns to prayer, family, gratitude, and her belief that God remained present even in moments she could not understand. In the final chapter, she confronts a new and unresolved medical diagnosis. This time, there is no neat ending. Instead, she writes from inside the uncertainty, acknowledging fear, sadness, and unanswered questions while choosing to hold onto faith.

My Lifeguard Walks on Water is ultimately about continuing to live when the next chapter has not yet revealed how it will end.