Posted on 03/01/2019 10:56:40 AM PST by Gamecock
A grandmother was washed out into the Icelandic sea while posing for photos on an “Iceberg Throne” when a large wave dislodged the chunk of ice, sending it drifting away from shore.
Earlier this week, Catherine Streng received several text messages and photos from her father about his trip to Iceland with his mother, detailing the grandmother’s misadventure. Streng shared the near-disastrous tale of her grandmother on social media.
“My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today,” Streng wrote, alongside some photos.
The funny-yet-scary images show the grey-haired woman sitting on a chunk of ice in the shape of a lounge chair.
Another image shows the elderly woman, still sitting on the iceberg, floating away into the Icelandic waters.
The woman was rescued by another tourist nearby, who happened to be a boat captain, as he waded into the water to grab the grandmother.
Streng shared the conversation she had with her father about the incident with Storyful, and explained to the news service exactly how the entire situation unfolded.
Streng said her family is based in Texas but they enjoy travelling and it didn’t surprise her that “my grandmother and father decided to go to Iceland.”
“My father described [the incident] the following way,” Streng said. “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 and carried her out with the tide.”
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Streng noted her father has a PhD in English and was an English teacher “so he’s pretty good with imagery.”
Speaking with ABC News, the grandmother had a good laugh about the incident.
“[The iceberg] was shaped like an easy place to sit, you can tell by looking at the shape of it. And I thought ‘Well that looks like fun,’” the woman said. “But when I got on, it started to totter and a wave was coming in, a very large wave came in and made the throne rock and I could tell I was slipping off.
“I don’t weigh very much so, it was a little easier to float off with me I guess,” the grandmother said.
Good times for granny.
Old age is no guarantee of wisdom.
I think the Inuit do that, but for real:
I mean, sorta like a macabre, icey version of social security.
MUCH WORSE!
I just read an article about that but they did WORSE.
They are not positive about the out to sea on a piece of ice thing, but think it did happen.
the SMOTHERING and STARVATION and ABANDONMENT, like just leaving the sick and old who couldn’t move where they lay and going on to greener passages was WORSE in my opinion.
Beating to death sometimes happened also.
The end of the practices came with pressure from missionaries and as a light was shone on what they were doing.
Two tribes. You are right about Inuit. Forget the other.
Grandma got run over by a freighter....
It’s funny now.
I salute her as still having a lively sense of fun, but that was a colossally dumb thing to do.
An off duty Coast Guard just happened to be in the area and nearby. If I’m reading it correctly, he had to swim out and get her off that iceberg.
Who’s idea was this, again?
***Today is BEER DAY in Iceland!
Bjordagur, or Beer Day on
March 1st is celebrated, honoring the end of alcohol prohibition on March 1st, 1989.
"Here, Hold my beer..."
Traditional Inuit assisted suicide?
You mean, like . . . a retirement plan?
Yes, an Inuit retirement plan that involved less funding, was permanently solvent, and involved immeasurably more honesty than ours does.
I think there was a far side cartoon about that. In it, grandma is sitting on an ice floe, being pushed out to sea. She says, “Are you sure this goes by the nursing home?”
he waded into the water to grab the grandmother.
Tsk, tsk. Grandma.
Lucky the Ice Throne wasn’t as unstable as the Democratic version of Guam,...it might have capsized. /s
Buh-bye Gran Gran.
Icelandair has some amazing fares to Europe from Denver, with layovers in Iceland. I know several people who have done it and they say the country is spectacular and people very friendly.
...but as for me and grandpa, we believe...
Darwin was asleep at the switch.
Odd looking woman...
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