Final scene [spoilers]

I picked up this movie in a free box at a second hand store. It's a VHS.

The final scene at the end of the movie is very much like the first at the beginning. Only at the beginning I didn't know why there was a girl lying face down in the lake at the cove. Could it be accident, a homicide, a suicide?
Then Emily begins speaking to us as to what has happened. And then we know the girl in the lake is the one speaking, and we learn how she came to this fate as the movie progresses.
What a sad heart-wrenching moving story!

The final scene (in the movie) tells me that she was probably in the pool while her life flashed before her eyes in seconds. To us, we saw it in one hour and a half.

I've been going back and forth in my mind as to whether she lived or died at the end.
The final words she says are: "In the end, my mother chose to die. And there was nothing I could do to ease her pain. Except perhaps...[sounds of water being pulled out of the pond and falling back into the pond, and then a sound of her gasping for air].....by choosing to live!."

This appears to me as if she pulled her head out of the water and choose to live as she says.
But I'm not entirely clear as to whether she does or not without a bit more proof. Let's see...Emily says there was nothing she could do to ease her mother's pain and so her mother took her own life. But, Emily also says that her mothers' pain was eased by her (Emily) choosing to live. To me this means that although her mother was in so much pain that she (mother) took her own life, her pain was in fact eased nevertheless because Emily choose to continue living (at the time that her mother took her own life).
Evidently the mother's pain wasn't eased enough to stop her from taking her life, but it was "eased" nevertheless. And when Emily, in the process of committing suicide, realizes this and so she pulls her head out of the water to choose to live.

I hope my analyses is correct and that there's a somewhat happy ending.
I do realize life don't always have a happy endings. And I wouldn't think of this movie badly if Emily did die because there's nothing wrong with movies showing us how real life is really like, as a lot of them don't. I'd be very sad if the movie had a sad ending.
I don't think the movie is bad at all. I found it very emotional as I saw Emily spiral downward and I though, no don't do that, don't think this way, or things will get worse...

(Note that the particular VHS tape I have is for some reason without Closed-Caption which could help in figuring out what's exactly taking place at the final scene. Because I've noticed with some movies it helps. For example, if the sound of water dripping is in fact herself pulling her head out of the water, the caption might say 'sound her Emily pulling head out of pond' or something which gives away clues.)

ttony_at
Tony

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Jan 12 2017 UPDATE:
I re-watched this movie with a friend and, yes, we both agree that Emily did choose to live at the end :)