Rescued woman meets her hero
Published: August 29, 2003
Jennifer Campbell (20) was swimming in Lake Michigan for about half an hour when currents suddenly pushed her out from the shore. Although she tried to swim back the currents were too strong. Her friends tried desperatedly too reach her - to no avail.
Rodney Shunta, an experienced scuba diver, got to her rescue.
I was starting to give up at that time, she said.
Then she heard Shunta. She couldn’t see him, but she heard him yell out encouragement.
I said something like ‘Just stay calm, I’m coming,’ Shunta said.
Once ashore Campbell’s friends took her over and Shunta walked away, rejoining his friends and hiking the quarter mile back to where he had parked his car.
Campbell stepped forward after reading about herself in Wednesday’s Chronicle. In that story, she was a mystery woman — a stranger to Shunta, who had jumped off the Muskegon breakwall into 4- to 6-foot waves to rescue her after she had drifted 600 feet from shore.
Thursday they met, hugged and traded stories.
I’m glad you made it, Shunta said.
I’m glad you were there, Campbell said.
They posed for photos and hugged at least three times. Shunta encouraged her to get back in the water in safer conditions. It’s just like riding a horse, he said. You’ve got to just get back in.
He told her she held her composure well. That not everyone would have been strong enough, physically and emotionally, to withstand the trauma she experienced.
You did good, he said. Now do good with your life.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: