Lauren Connor, a 32-year-old mother of four, had decided to go on a boating trip with her boyfriend and another couple on Sunday afternoon. They had all been enjoying drinks when it happened.
The hull of the boat struck a wave so hard that Connor suddenly felt herself falling overboard.
She was able to, thankfully, rise immediately to the surface of the water and feel slightly sheepish for having fallen off the boat as she waited for her friends to haul her back onboard. But they didn’t.
For her boyfriend, Scott Johnson, and their friends on the boat, it was impossible to see Connor bobbing on the water’s surface. The setting sun shot glares everywhere, making it impossible to discern Connor – even as she peeled off her white shorts and waved them in the air like a flag.
Johnson called 911.
Connor swam toward a buoy floating nearby, hoping she could grab hold and wait for help to arrive. Its surface was, however, too slippery to grip, and by the time rescue boats came around, it was too dark to see Connor, or her waving maroon tank top.
That night, Johnson couldn’t even begin to consider what he would have to tell their children. Out in the water, Connor was debating to herself: Should she tread water or swim toward shore?
The question of survival had never crossed her mind. She knew she would make it through the night. She had to – for her children.
“Lauren,” she told herself, “you are not going to die out here.”
After allowing herself a moment to float in the water, getting her bearings, Connor flipped herself over and began to swim toward shore. She didn’t know it at the time, but land was about two miles away. All she knew was that she was determined to make it there.
As she swam, Connor thought about her children, prayed to Jesus, and even sang to herself to keep her spirits up. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”
On land, Johnson was still struggling to break the news to his and Connor’s families. No one slept that night.
In the water, Connor was fighting the sensation of drowning, struggling to stay afloat, when she felt it – mud beneath her toes. Connor spent the night shivering in a bed of leaves, again, fighting to stay alive through the chill of the night in only her bikini.
When morning broke, a new wave of rescue teams set out to resume the search for Connor – who was already up and set on finding her way back home to her family.
