Readers Digest UK - December 2021

DECEMBER 2021 • 75

message to Friedman.
“I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding
me, dude,’ ” Friedman says. He knew
he wanted to locate her. “We’ve
got to finish this story!” Friedman
concocted a plan to surprise the two
fishing captains with the woman
they’d rescued years earlier. First, he
reached out to Desireé to ensure she
wanted to meet her rescuers.
“I thought, This is weird. Not a
bad weird, but it’s just kind of eerie,”
says Desireé, now a sergeant in
the Los Angeles county sheriff ’s
department. “After all these years,
for this to come up—what are the
chances? Very slim.”
Desireé agreed to show up at the
studio a few days later. The plan was
that she would pose as a woman
named Raquel, a translator who was
going to retell the captains’ rescue
tale on Spanish television.
“I was nervous at first,” Desireé
says of the experience, “just seeing
the guys and putting a finalisation to
‘what happened.’ ”
All smiles, Desireé listened to
her rescuers recount their side of
the story. They were clueless as to
her true identity.
After almost ten minutes,
Friedman ended the ruse. “Boys,
I want to tell you something,” he said.
“This is not a translator. I’m going to
let her introduce herself to you.”
“I’m Desireé,” she said, her voice
gently wavering.
Pisano slapped the table in an

instant of recognition. Amid hugs,

tears, and exclamations, the story

that decades earlier had united the

strangers came tumbling out.

“I feel like she’s sort of our

daughter, in a way, because we were

the ones who brought her back to

life,” Strasser says.

For years, Desireé had wondered

about the men who rescued her. Now

that she’s met them, she says she

hopes to stay connected forever.

On May 18, 2021, the 35th

anniversary of the accident,

Strasser and Pisano took Desireé and

her family on their fishing boat to

Catalina Island, following the same

course they took all those years ago.

“It looked just the same as it did

the day we found her,” says Strasser.

They stopped the boat, and the

family said some prayers. Then

the men handed them bunches

of flowers—carnations, roses, and

lilies—to toss into the water as a sign

of remembrance.

It was an almost uncannily

perfect gesture. The men had no

way of knowing, so a teary Desireé

explained: her mother had

loved lilies, they were

her favourite

flowers. Q

from los angeles

times (march 10,

2021), copyright ©

2021 by los

angeles times,

latimes.com

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