The summer we stayed in Colorado, Sam took swimming lessons. He was 4 1/2 years old. He enjoyed the water very much, but he didn’t learn to swim.

After we moved to Texas, my neighbor, Karol Smith, took all three of my kids into her backyard pool and taught them to swim in a week. She said she’d taught dozens of kids to swim by condensing the way most parks and rec programs did it — sometimes over several years of summers. She guaranteed she’d get it done.

It was the summer Paige turned 6, so Michael would have been 8, and Sam, 11. I was certain she’d have Michael and Paige swimming, but told her Sam might take a little longer.

It didn’t. And, Karol turned Sam into the biggest fish of them all.