Nicole Grayson, a 43-year-old Florida mother, died on Saturday after jumping into the St. Johns River to rescue her 4-year-old son, who slipped into the water while reaching for a toy, according to local officials.
“She was always there for you,” Grayson’s 17-year-old son Dafino Devega told local station WESH. “She would have did that for any of her kids, and we would have done the same for her.”
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office reported that emergency services responded to Ed Stone Park in DeLand, Florida, around 4 p.m. on July 18, following reports of a woman and child in distress in the river.
According to a preliminary investigation, the toddler accidentally dropped a toy over a fence bordering the water and fell in while attempting to reach it. Grayson immediately jumped into the river to rescue him. Witnesses on the scene flagged down a passing boater, who threw two life preservers toward Grayson as she struggled to keep her son above the surface.
"I love my mom,” 9-year-old Koron said. “She did all of that for my little brother. She pushed me aside because she didn't want us to get hurt. She saved my little brother, but she didn't worry about herself. She worried about my little brother."
The boater successfully pulled the 4-year-old onto the vessel unharmed. A second witness then entered the river to help lift Grayson onto the boat, where they initiated CPR until emergency medical personnel arrived.
Grayson was taken to a hospital and placed in the intensive care unit, where she died later that evening.
“I just want her to be remembered as a positive person,” Grayson’s eldest daughter, Montraevia Adams, also told WESH, “because she always had a smile on her face no matter what.”
Grandmother to three of Grayson’s six grandkids, Laronda Morris, said that Grayson worked as a hospice nurse. But her real passion was raising her children. Morris added that she was still in shock over the death.
“She was really special to me,” Morris said, “and I'm gonna miss her. And the hardest part is looking at my grandkids and knowing that their mother is not here."
Morris also had a message for the boater who helped save the 4-year-old and tried to help Grayson.
“I want to thank them because if it was not for them being there, it may have been a different outcome,” Morris told WESH. “We could have lost both of them.”
Adams created a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Grayson’s funeral, and for herself and her siblings as they navigate the loss of their mother. So far, the siblings have raised $13,000 of their $18,000 goal.
“She was an incredible mother who raised six children,” Adams wrote in the GoFundMe page. “She loved each of us unconditionally and would do anything for her kids. We were truly blessed to have a mother who was caring, supportive, selfless, and always willing to sacrifice her time to make sure we had what we needed.”
