A grandma floated out to sea on a large throne of ice and had to be rescued
It's not every day a grandmother is crowned Queen of Icebergs, but when it does happen it's quite the sight.
On a recent trip to Iceland, Judith Streng became that grandma after her son attempted to take a photograph of her sitting on an ice structure that resembled a throne at Diamond Beach in Jökulsárlón.Shortly after Streng sat down to pose, the piece of ice broke off and floated into the water.
"When I got on it, it started to totter and a wave was coming in," Streng told ABC News. "A very large wave came in and kind of made the throne kind of rock, and I could tell that I was slipping off."
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"I thought it was safe," Streng told ABC News. "One girl had been on it and then two girls at the same time, and it was very secure with them. But I don't weigh very much. So it was a little easier to float off with me, I guess."
Streng's story went viral after her 24-year-old granddaughter Catherine tweeted a text message exchange she had with her father about the incident.
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Catherine, who teaches English in Seoul, South Korea, explained via Twitter DM that her father painted a very vivid picture of the scene when the two spoke. He has a PhD in English, and described the event in the following words:
"She ascended the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and dislodged the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave retreated, it lifted the dislodged throne throne and carried her out with the tide."
Luckily for the Streng family, Randy Lacount, a licensed boat captain from Florida with knowledge of water rescue strategies witnessed the whole thing, and was able to save the day.
"When I first got the text I laughed out loud at work because that's just so something that would happen to my family," Catherine said. She assured us that her grandmother is just fine and back from vacation, at home in Texas.
Long live the Iceberg Queen.
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
