The daughter of Mary Byman is overjoyed to have her mom back home and alive.
Mary was lost in a forest near Menisino for over four days after a blueberry scavenging mission went awry. Hundreds of people mounted a search in efforts to find her but the party was called off at 6 PM Sunday. Most people presumed her dead.
It is for this reason, and many more, that her daughter, Roxanne Byman praises the independent searchers who held onto hope.
“We were bracing ourselves for the worst,” says Byman, “but thankfully, we won the lottery instead.”
Byman has spent a lot of time with her mother in recent days and has learned intimate details about what it was like to be lost and alone in the woods. One thing Mary seems to have stressed is the overwhelming presence of bugs.
“That was probably the most harrowing part,” explains Byman, “between the flies during the day, the mosquitoes at night, and the wood ticks, she could not really sleep.”
Mary’s rest schedule followed the pattern of the unrelenting insects. She was awake during the night in order to prevent the mosquitoes from getting to her and would try to tolerate the flies as they bit her while she slept. Byman supposes this could be one reason it took so long for search crews to locate her. By the end of day number four, Mary had assumed she would not be found.
“We had a lot of rain Sunday afternoon and she was very wet and cold,” retells Byman. “That last night she ended up in this swamp and realized there were no blueberries there. At that point, she was thinking: ‘This is bad for me, this is really bad.’”
Only a few hours after she had accepted her fate, a gunshot rang out. Using her last bit of strength, Mary called for help.
“She had been calling the whole time,” acknowledges Byman, “but I think maybe she maybe put more effort into this one.”
Byman’s mother was rescued that night. Mary is now out of the hospital and continues to recover in the comfort of her home. Though it remains unclear why it took so long to find her or how she wandered so far off the path, to Byman those details are of minimal importance.
What matters to Byman is that, by some miracle, her mom was found. "Most people are actually just good people," says Byman, thinking of those who dedicated days to the search, "and nothing is more important than the people you love."
Mon, May 6, 8:30 AM
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