'One tough bird': Woman, 84, asked for a cold beer and a hot tub when rescuers found her in bush

Volunteers say Mary Byman was cold, wet, barefoot and smiling when they found the 84-year-oldhuddled under a tree in southern Manitoba after days lost alone in the woods.

"A cold beer and a hot tub that was her two requests," said Crystal Leigh, one of the rescuers who locatedByman late Sunday night near Piney, Man., after she got lost while picking blueberries.

"She thought when she was in the hospital, that's what they should give her first, was a cold beer," Leigh said.

Bymanhad been missing sinceWednesday after getting separated from a friend while berry picking in the Spur Woods areabetween Piney and her home community of Menisino, about 125 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

Byman'sdisappearance triggered a days-long search by dozens of volunteers from across the province.

"We're just elated," Roxanne Byman, one of Mary Byman's daughters, said Monday morning about the successful search."We're beyond happy."

Sherry Lyn Marginet, another of Mary Byman's daughters, said her mom is recovering in a hospital in Steinbach,about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

"First thing in the morning when I got a hold of her,I said, 'You know, you're one tough bird.' She says, 'Oh yeah, I am,'" Marginet said Monday. "She's just a hearty person who loves life, and she has tenacity and she wouldn't give up."

'The strongest woman on Earth'

The search had officially ended Sunday evening when Leigh and her husband, John Friesen, drovefrom their home in Piney to help look.

They quickly found Darryl Contois, a determined volunteer with decades of search-and-rescue experiencewho had decided to camp in the area with his son before continuing the search.

"I told my son we can't give up. She's not found," Contois said Monday. "I said, 'It's up to us, I guess, to go find her.'"

Contois who runs a volunteer search and rescue group called Evelyn Memorial Search Team said he and his son were hunting a deer when they fireda gunshot and heard a faint cry for help.

The group and a few othersfollowed the cry into the gnarled mass of fallen trees and overgrown ravines. Friesen said they fired more shots as they went, each one followed by another shout for help, until, at last,they heard her voice close by.

"I knew it wasn't just imagination. It was really someone calling back to us. That was amazing," Friesen said. "And just seeing her she had a smile. [That's] what I can'tforget."

They found Bymanexhausted, soaked and freezing, crouched under a tree in a shallow hole filled with water. She told them she hadbeen there for a day, unable to keep on walking.

"I said, 'You're not going to spend another night in this bush,'" Contois said. "I looked up to the sky and I said,'Thank you God.'"

She was barefoot, Friesen added, and had lost her shoes days earlier.

"She is just amazing. She must be the strongest woman on Earth to have gone through what she went through," said Leigh, who lay down with Byman in the water to warm her before they lifted her out and Contois's son built a fire.

"She was just in the best of spirits. She kept her sense of humour."

Visiting with a box of beer

After finding Byman, the groupcalled police and emergency services for help. It took crews two hours to cut through the brush to get to where they were about 2.5kilometres from where Contois fired the original shot.

Before Byman got to the hospital, Friesen and Leigh said she promised them she wouldn't be picking berries again any time soon.

"I don't believe that at all. My mom will be blueberry picking till she drops," Marginet said, laughing. "We're getting her a high-visibility vest."

She said her family plans to have a thank you party with all the people who helped find her mom.

On Monday, Friesen said he and his wife also hopedtospend time with Byman soon.

"We'll definitely go visit. We're definitely going to go there with a box of beer."

'That was amazing': Rescuers find 84-year-old berry picker 4 days after going missing in Manitoba forest

5 years ago

Duration 1:25

Family of a woman rescued four days after going missing in the bush while berry picking says they're relieved to have her back, safe and sound.