09/14/2023
Trish: My two older boys, 19 and 20 years old, are lifeguards at Seaside Heights. I'm very proud of them. But these past couple of days have been so stressful. They don't like to talk about their days at work lifeguarding. They'll come home from the beach and I’ll ask, ‘How was your day at work?’ And they’ll say, ‘Oh, it was fine.’ And then I find out later there were three rescues. And I’m like, ‘Why don't you tell me?’ But it's just what they do. As a mom I want to hear, I want to know everything, but they do their rescues, and that's just what they do. They're lifeguards. But these past couple of days with the intense ocean conditions and the number of rescues were unprecedented, and both of my boys were working. I could see on their faces they wanted to talk this time. And to me as their mom that spoke volumes, and of course I listened. But as their mother it’s very, very heavy. My son was on the rescue right here saving that family at the same time another man was drowning. They could never find him, and he was part of the recovery unit. The state police were looking and they thought they saw the body under the water and he was diving and looking for him.
The chief said that Sunday was the worst day that we've ever had in our history with the number of rescues. Living here, as soon as the lifeguards go off duty and the sirens go off, you know what is happening. The rescues and drownings are happening. We hear it all the time and it's so stressful and it's so frustrating because we know the dangers and people don't listen. Even when the lifeguards were on duty this weekend, they’re short staffed with so many back at school or back home. The ones still working live locally. So my boys are the few young lifeguards that are on duty. And they had so many rescues. At Seaside Heights, every time they close the beach, they pull everyone out, they blow the whistles, clear the water and they make a huge announcement over the PA ‘No lifeguards on duty.’ They have a mantra, ‘Stay out, stay alive. Stay out, stay alive.’ But after they leave people still go in after hours.
On Labor Day the beach was packed. My 19 year old was one of the only ones on the stand again. They're short staffed. He's watching and there's 18 people on the sandbar right by the pier in Seaside Heights. All those people were standing knee deep. A huge wave came and the sandbar broke away and now they're in water under the waves and over their heads. He didn't even have time to blow the whistle. He just got on the walkie talkie and yelled ‘Every lifeguard to Hancock now!’ and he just went in the water. Like I said he never talks about his day at work but he keeps talking about this particular incident because keeps replaying it in his mind. Like imagine 18 People going down under the water and you have to go save them all. He said there were so many people, he was grabbing them, putting them on their feet and telling them to run because they were knocked down and they were disoriented. Some of them were able to get to shore on their own. They rescued about six to ten people in that one incident. My son said that by the third time going out, He said, ‘Mom, my body was giving out.’ My son is in tip-top shape, and I've never heard him ever say something like that before. I am very proud of my boys, but it can be very stressful.
POTJS Note: This interview was conducted at 9am. When I got home I had a message from Trish in my inbox: "It was nice meeting you this morning. My son isn’t even on duty yet and there’s a water rescue call from fire dept! Insane!! Thankfully the person got out alive.
