It was a glorious day on the Gulf Coast — perfect for relaxing in the ocean. And then, for a former Massachusetts resident, it turned into a fight for survival.
Elisabeth Foley, formerly of Mansfield, was vacationing with her family along the Florida Panhandle last June. As on previous days, she, her husband and their three teenaged children took to the water.
“All of a sudden I looked behind me and saw this thing that looked like a torpedo,” Foley said. “It was a huge mass.”
There was no torpedo surging towards her. It was a shark.
Foley didn’t know what it was at the time, but the approaching object was so ominous that she moved to get out of its way.
“I started kicking towards the shore and I immediately felt this searing pain,” she said.
The shark had attacked her lower body, badly damaging tissue there. Foley, fearing it might attack her children, fought back.
“I remembered that if you punch a shark in the nose that’s a vulnerable spot and it will go away,” she said. “I pulled back with my left hook and punched as hard as I could. The shark grabbed me by the hand and pulled me underwater. And I really thought I was going to die. And I prayed that God would spare my life.”