“As the waves crashed down, all I could see was the shirt of this little girl,” says Chris Miller, 42.
He was laying on the beach the sun striking his skin; he saw the red flag waving its warning to stay out of the water. To his left there was a family of three kids, no parents insight, playing at the edge of the water. This was moments before Miller risked his life to save a human he didn’t know.

The waves were high and the undertow was strong, so strong it swallowed this little girl right from the beach into the depths of the ocean.
“It felt like a dream,” said Miller. “A little girl’s life was in jeopardy; I couldn’t sit back and watch.”

Miller grabbed a boogie board and ran. Only one thought was on his mind: I am stronger than the waves. He remembers it seemed like hours until he reached the girl.
His wife remembers it a little differently: “It all happened in the blink of an eye. Before I could remind him he had children who didn’t need their father to die in the ocean, he was in the water and swimming towards shore with this little girl in his arms.”
After wrestling with the waves, and ripping the girl from the tight grip that held her, he mustered all his strength and swam back to shore.
“The waves crashed over me, and I have never felt an undertow that strong.” But that didn’t stop Miller, he knew he had to try to save her life…and he did.
Miller vividly remembers the tear stained siblings whose toes clenched the sandy beach wondering if their sister would survive. The girl was coughing up water, as a group of bystanders came to examine the miracle they witnessed.

A woman in a beach dress immerged from the stairs, tripping as she ran in the sand, she was screaming my baby my baby, remembers Miller.
“The look in this woman’s eye confirmed I did that right thing.”