Liveline RTÉ Radio 1
Sometimes there’s a story that so heartening and so brimful of joy that your heart thrills.
Mary Thompstone was taking a long shot, a very long shot, when she set out on her search for one John Eldred. She’d never met the man.
The story concerned her mother, Anastasia.
It was a story that happened in 1953 but one that changed a whole history – Mary would never have been on the radio talking to Joe Duffy had it not been for the stranger.
In 1953 on a beach in Ireland, Anastasia went for a swim and got into real difficulties, she was drowning.
Her sister raised the alarm and John Eldred, a teenager, who was staying in a local hotel, ran to the beach, jumped into the water, swam out and saved her life.
She never forgot it and nor did her family.
Anastasia was 25 or 26 ... after she was saved, she went on to marry, work as a nurse, save lives and give life... she had her five children and grandchildren too.
And somehow, on the radio, someone heard Mary’s story of her search and someone knew someone and although no John Eldred was found in Ireland, the right man was found alive and well and living in Wiltshire.
There was high drama and much laughter as Joe Duffy broke the news to Mary Thompstone.
Suddenly, the stranger her mother always talked about was on the radio: “It’s me, John Eldred, I’m alive...” he said.
You couldn’t make it up.
He is now 84 but he remembers that day when he was 17 and he hurtled down to the beach to save the drowning woman.
He remembers how composed she was and how she told him to leave her if he was in any danger of drowning himself.
And he remembers an awkward thing... but go have a listen.
It was a beautiful true story... it was all down to John Eldred and a little Joe Duffy magic too.
