Kelowna mom survives near drowning while on vacation in Mexico

KELOWNA – A midnight walk on a Mexican beach turned into a fight for survival for a Kelowna woman.

Shannon Christensen and her husband Dylan are in Ixtapa, Mexico for a vacation. Last night they were out for a romantic walk on the beach in ankle-deep water. While Dylan was putting his shoes on dry land, Christensen says “a giant wave suddenly came over me and ripped me deep into the ocean.”

“I couldn’t tell which way I was facing, I couldn’t find sand or anything to anchor myself to push back to shore,” she posted to Facebook today, Jan. 19. “I couldn’t yell or cry out it just happened so fast.”

By the time she made it back to shore she was a kilometer away. With the help of local strangers, she was reunited with Dylan.

"My love for Dylan exploded in this experience, my boys are my everything and I just love to love and be so genuinely loved, no moments wasted," she says. "I am so blessed and grateful for this life, and in a weird way for this experience."

“I’m focusing on really enjoying every second of the rest of this trip (in the pool not at the beach) and not sweating any of the small stuff anymore. If this can be a reminder to anyone to hold your babies tighter, love deeper and forgive freely then it wasn’t for naught. Life is just way too short.”

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