Joan Rivet, 82, was getting ready for bed on June 1 when she took a misstep. She fell into her own bathtub at her mountain home in North Carolina and could not get out. Her phone was outside the bathroom. So was her cat, Phoebe, who meowed by the door for days without anyone else hearing her.
For nine days, Rivet lost track of time between light and darkness. She had no food or water within reach until she discovered she could turn the faucet with her foot and splash her face to drink enough. The pain from her back injury was constant, but she kept repeating the same plea: “Lord, help me”.
Her brother Bill Lesko, who lives five hours away, noticed something was wrong when she stopped answering his weekly calls. Thanks to his persistence, the Haywood County sheriff found her semi-conscious on June 10. Today, she is recovering with physical therapy and says she never lost faith that someone would find her alive.