Seven-year-old Natalie Nakamura was playing in the water at White Pine Beach in Port Moody in July when she noticed a little boy struggling to keep his head above the waves.
Instead of panicking or calling to the shore for her parents, the quick-thinking girl swam out and grabbed the three-year-old boy, then kept his head above water as she dragged him back to shore.
On Monday, Natalie was honoured with a bravery award by the Port Moody Fire Department. Fire Chief Jeff Lambert presented her with a plaque and gave her a tour of the firehall. The soft-spoken girl beamed as he let her go in one of the fire trucks.
She had no formal training about what to do in such a situation, but said that all she could think about was that she had to get the little boy to the shore.
“I helped him because I didn’t want him to drown,” she said, shortly after she received her award. “It made me feel happy and scared and a little nervous.”
Natalie, who lives with her parents and five-year-old brother Spencer in Maple Ridge, said “it is nice” being called a hero.
“It makes me feel like I have done something really important.”
Spencer said when he saw Natalie pulling the boy from the water he thought “it looked really bad.” He said he was really proud of his big sister.
Natalie believes the three-year-old boy followed her and Spencer into the water, despite warnings from his mother, and ended up in water over his head. Natalie was standing in water up to her neck.
“He went too far into the water,” she said. “And I saw him and only his head was above water and his hands because he was stretching his hands out.”
Once they were back on land the boy coughed up water as his panic-stricken mother came rushing over and thanked Natalie for saving her youngest son.
Natalie’s mother Meenaxi Nakamura said they did not know the woman or the boy and never found out their names, although they would like to know how he is doing.
“He wasn’t unconscious but it looked like he had swallowed quite a bit of water,” said Nakamura.
She said she wanted Natalie to have some sort of memento to remind her of her life-saving actions when she was older, so she called the Maple Ridge fire department to see if they have any certificates for kids. The department then arranged a formal public presentation for Natalie with the Port Moody fire department.
“We’re very proud of her,” her mother said. “It’s something that she instinctively did on her own.”
Lambert said there is so much negativity in the world that when a child does something positive it’s nice to mark the occasion.
“In this instance she saved a little guy’s life and I think that is monumental. She is a very brave little girl.”
ticrawford@vancouversun.com
