A beach day turned into a life-altering nightmare for twin sisters Ellie and Lulu Gribbin — one they’ll never forget.
Last summer, the 15-year-old twins were enjoying a family tri p to Florida. On what should’ve been a carefree afternoon, they headed to the ocean with their mom to collect sand dollars, a type of sea urchin scattered across the shallow sea floor.
But in an instant, their joy turned into terror.
“We were just swimming around, looking for sand dollars,” Ellie recalled in an interview with ABC. “And then I saw it — a shark. We just started swimming for our lives.”
She remembers Lulu trying to stay calm, whispering something like “stay calm” as panic set in. But as Ellie reached the shore and turned around, what she saw was pure horror.
“The entire ocean was red,” she said. “The waves were carrying the blood closer to shore.”
And then she saw Lulu — being carried out of the water by a stranger. That’s when Ellie realized the truth.
“She was missing her hand. It was just a limb of flesh, blood, and muscle,” Ellie said, her voice breaking.
But it was worse than that.
“Not just her hand,” she continued. “Her whole leg… I could see her thigh bone. There was barely any muscle left. I don’t even remember if her foot was still there.”
Somehow, despite the unimaginable pain, Lulu remembered being on the shore, Ellie by her side, holding her hand and keeping her awake until help arrived.
Lulu was airlifted to the hospital and rushed into emergency surgery. She survived — but not without devastating loss. Surgeons had to amputate both her hand and part of her leg. Today, she uses a prosthetic arm and leg.
Finding Strength in the Aftermath
It would’ve been easy for Lulu to retreat into grief. But instead, she’s found purpose in her pain.
She’s since launched the Lulu Strong Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping other amputees and raising awareness about life after limb loss. Through her foundation, she’s become a beacon of hope for others facing unimaginable trauma.
As for Ellie, she returned to the beach that same night.
“It felt like a ghost town,” she said. “Everyone was scared. Honestly, I think if we’d been any farther out, we wouldn’t have made it.”
Neither sister has taken a day for granted since.
They still hold hands. They still laugh. They still have each other.
And Ellie has just one promise now: “I’ll never swim that far out again. Ever.”
