Child saved from drowning in Glacier

A little boy escaped a death by drowning in Glacier National Park Wednesday, Aug. 4, thanks to a West Valley woman's quick thinking.

Shirley Willis was traveling in Glacier with her family on a red bus tour. The group stopped at a set of waterfalls within a few miles of the Lake McDonald Lodge.

"I always go downstream and make my kids go upstream," Willis said.

This intuition put Willis in the right place at the right time.

"I heard 'My son, my son!'" Willis reported. "When I heard that I knew somebody's kid fell in the river. The first thing in my head was that could be my son."

Willis spotted the boy in a red-striped shirt, who she estimates at about 4 years old, breaking the surface and being sucked under by the current as he came toward her.

"I took off, ran across two rocks and jumped right in," Willis said. She was fully clothed, in tennis shoes and jeans with a sweatshirt tied around her waist.

Her timing was perfect and the river spit the boy out in front of her. She grabbed the child and swam for the bank, where her husband and cousin hauled the boy out of the river. Several men pulled Willis out of the river a little farther downstream.

"It was my instinct," she said. "I've done it a thousand times in my head. I love the river, but it's dangerous. I'm strong, I'm a good swimmer. It was very cold."

Willis said she was later filled with anxiety about what would have happened if she'd missed the boy, but at the time she had no thoughts in her mind except the rescue.

The boy appeared to be fine after his ordeal, if very cold and wet. Willis never did catch his name.

"The dad came down, held my hands and he was in shock," Willis said. "He said, 'thank you, thank you.'"