SAN ANTONIO – A month after a mother and her infant were saved by two men from being swept away in floodwaters, the two met their rescuers for the first time on Thursday.
"(We're) very appreciative, very thankful and very blessed to be here," said Enedina Sancen, who was rescued May 18 by off-duty Bexar County Sheriff's Cpl. Jason Jarvis and good Samaritan John Barber, who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
"I just want to say thank you, because without you, man, I couldn't have done it," Jarvis told Barber during a reunion Thursday.
Sancen said she remembers dropping off three of her children at school and then crossing what appeared to be a shallow road. Her car stalled in high water.
"Water started coming in the car, so I thought, 'Oh, my gosh,'" she said. "I climbed into the back seat, got her (1-year-old daughter) out of the car seat. The water was going, so my car started going, so I climbed out of the window and on top of the car."
The car started to float and sink.
"I grabbed a tree and was waiting. They got there before 911 got there," Sancen said. She said she was holding her daughter in one hand and the tree branch and her cellphone in the other.
Jarvis and Barber said they weren't thinking about the danger when they went into the floodwaters. Their main concern was trying to save Sancen and her baby.
"When I stepped down, that had to have been the actual riverbank, because that's when I actually went into the water and went under. That's when it hit me," Jarvis said. "It was real at that point, and that's when I was scared."
Barber recalls the ordeal.
"He was trying to find her in the trees, but it was really difficult," he said. "There were trees falling, branches and everything in the way. I went down and tapped him on the shoulder (and said), 'Hey, I got your back.'"
Jarvis said there were about six people along the embankment, but Barber was the only one who stepped up.
"He deserves the recognition because the public doesn't do that. We don't see the public step up and take care of each other like we should," he said. "And I'm grateful, very grateful that he was there with me."
For his heroic actions, Barber was presented with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office "Life Saving Award."
Barber and Jarvis said they do not consider themselves heroes. They said they were just helping a woman and child in serious trouble.
They both said they would do it again to save a life.