Mariza Mojica was at Versluis Park in Plainfield Township, Michigan, when she saw a mother running out of the water with her 2-year-old daughter in her arms. The girl was not breathing.
For a moment, she froze. Then she approached, took the baby, and began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When that was not enough, she moved on to chest compressions. She repeated the process over and over, without letting go, without stopping, while the mother cried beside her. It was only two minutes, but to Mojica it felt like an eternity.
The girl began breathing again before professional help arrived, and today she is already home, discharged from the hospital. Mojica only had CPR certification obtained through her job and one fixed thought in her mind: her own children. “I would like someone to do it for me”, she said. Sometimes heroism does not wear a cape; it wears a first-aid course and the decision not to look the other way.