Sometimes the world comes full circle in the most heartwarming way, just ask Barbara Ribeiro and Ben Colwell.
In 1961, Barbara was in her 30s and enjoying a party in San Diego when she heard unsettling news: a baby had gone missing. Guests scattered to search the neighborhood. Barbara, then known as Barbara Urban, wasn’t sure why she picked one particular house, but something told her to go. And that instinct saved a life.
Down at the bottom of a backyard pool, she spotted 21-month-old Ben Colwell, motionless and terrifyingly still.
“It was scary frightening,” Barbara recalled. She didn’t hesitate. She jumped in, pulled the baby out, and began mouth-to-mouth and CPR, following the instructions of a neighbor who knew what to do. Little Ben hadn’t been breathing, “there weren’t any bubbles coming up,” he later said, remembering what his mom had told him. “So no one knew how long I had been down there.”
Barbara’s quick thinking and courage made front-page news in the San Diego Sentinel at the time. But soon after, Ben’s family moved away, and the two lost touch, until now.
Fast forward 64 years: Ben is a proud father of two and a business owner. Barbara is 94 and still as spunky as ever. Thanks to Ben’s siblings and CBS 8 San Diego, the two were reunited in a moment that brought tears, hugs, and a wave of gratitude six decades in the making.
“Hello, hello young man!” Barbara beamed as she welcomed him with open arms. And while she warned the cameras she was “liable to cry,” the joy of seeing Ben again was more powerful than any tears.
“It was so nice to see her,” Ben said. “When I really think of it, I think ‘hand of God.’ He made sure that I made it for some reason.”
Sometimes, miracles walk among us. And sometimes, they’re dressed in 1960s party attire, diving into pools to change someone’s life forever.
