She Posed for a Pic on an Iceberg. Then It Began to Float Away

77-year-old Judith Streng was rescued by a boat captain in Iceland
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 2, 2019 8:00 AM CST
'Iceberg Grandma' Rescued After Photo Op Goes Awry
Take your photos in Iceland with your feet firmly planted on solid ground.   (Getty Images/Explora_2005)

"My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today lmaoooo" isn't a tweet you typically see on Twitter, but one young lady felt compelled to share the photos of her grandma drifting away into the ocean while perched on a throne-shaped iceberg. The Washington Post reports on Judith Streng's recent trip with her son to Iceland, where the two made a stop at Diamond Beach in Jokulsarlon on Tuesday. There she spotted a hunk of ice shaped like a throne of sorts and decided it would serve as a perfect photo op—and so the 77-year-old climbed onto the ice, leaned back, and smiled for the picture. Then: "It started to totter," Streng tells ABC News.

"A very large wave came in and ... made the throne kind of rock, and I could tell that I was slipping off," she recalls. The iceberg dislodged and started drifting, Streng still on it. Streng's son texted to his daughter Christine the series of photos (one was captioned "iceberg queen) showing Streng floating further and further away from shore; Christine posted them on Twitter and they quickly went viral, amassing nearly 70,000 shares by Saturday morning. Florida boat captain Randy Lacount happened to be on the water that day and scooped Streng up when he spotted her. Streng, who's now back home in Texas, doesn't seem traumatized from her ordeal on the icy throne. "You know I always wanted to be queen," she says. "I mean, come on, that was my chance." (More strange stuff stories.)

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