Hilltop hero saves 3-year-old
Published: September 11, 2006
Emily Johnson said anyone would have done what she did - jump into a pool to pluck out a floundering child - but they didn’t.
Johnson was working an outdoor wedding reception in Needham for the Hilltop Steak House when she noticed a small boy wandering near the pool.
Johnson, who is studying nursing at the University of Massachusetts, said several people had warned 3-year old John Paul Tenaglia to stay away from the water, but it was too inviting.
“He was dipping his toes in,” she said. “Finally his mother let him take his clothes off and go in. She said he could swim.”
Apparently, he could not.
Johnson said she was serving food along the buffet when she saw the adults converge on the edge of the pool. She could see through the small crowd that John Paul was floundering.
“He was dog-paddling really hard,” she said, “but his head kept going under and then it didn’t come up.”
While the child’s mother called for her son to swim harder Johnson didn’t hesitate, she dropped what she was doing and plunged in the pool after the boy.
“He was fine,” she said, shrugging off her heroics. “I just helped him out.”
Karen Frascatore, however, did not shrug off Johnson’s rescue of her half-brother.
It was Frascatore’s wedding day and she said her family was extremely grateful for Johnson’s swift thinking.
“It was just so quick,” she said. “Others saw it, but she just reacted so quickly. Others looked like they were thinking they should do something, but she did it.”
Frascatore said her half-brother was stunned at first but rebounded quickly and, by the end of the reception, was running around as if nothing had happened.
Johnson said she rebounded quickly as well. She joked that as she came out of the pool she simply picked her plates back up and began asking guests, “steak or chicken?”
Friday Hilltop’s Director of Catering Maryann Harvey presented Johnson with a plaque, “for her swift and heroic act on Aug. 19, 2006.”
“We’ve never presented a plaque like this before,” said Harvey. “We’re really proud of her.”
Hilltop Manager Leonard DeRosa called Johnson “a unique individual.”
“For all the time I’ve worked here, this is just somebody that’s totally impressed me,” DeRosa said. “She’s just a class act employee.”
Johnson, who is the daughter and sister of Boston firefighters, said in the two years she’s worked at the restaurant she’s never encountered a situation such as the pool rescue.
“When I started telling the people the story, they said, ‘Oh someone choked.’ I said, ‘Nope, not even close.’ ”
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