A group of recent high school graduates from Sulphur Springs, Texas were on-hand to witness the Florida shark attack which left a Mountain Brook girl missing a hand and a leg. The teens helped to pull Lulu Gribbin out of the water when it became clear that help was needed.
They discussed their account, what they witnessed, the power of prayer, and much more during a news hit for KLTV in East Texas.
“I think when something happens that makes you realize that something is more important than yourself and you can help other people I think it links to community,” said Ali Fair-Cheek when asked about her biggest takeaway from the entire situation. “I never thought I would be in communication with people from Birmingham, Alabama.”
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Ali and the other girls shared their account of what she saw happened and how God played a role.
“She just kind of lifted her foot up out of the water and that’s when we saw she had been bitten on her lower leg,” said Kate Monk. “That was when we knew we had to act. We had to wrap her leg up to kind of just contain the bleeding.”
“There was one girl coming out of the water, first girl I made eye contact with, and she was panicking and it was really scary,” said Fair-Cheek. “I wanted her to know I was talking to her. So I reached for her face and grabbed her face and I was like ‘If you would let me I would love to pray over you, let’s pray.’ And she said yes.”
“Looking back on it I’m just really glad that God placed us in that moment at that time to help those girl and give them comfort,” said Monk.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
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