On Feb. 1, a 12-year-old boy from Virginia faced a harrowing ordeal in his neighborhood when he fell into an icy retention pond. Unbeknownst to him, Ms. White — the mother of the boy’s friend — would become the local hero because she chose to act without sparing a second for fear.
This year’s winter has been harsh; from car owners to the president, everyone has offered a take on the brutal weather currently gripping the U.S. But in Virginia, this is largely business as usual. The risk of icy retention ponds becoming dangerous blackspots is a reality residents have always had to contend with.
According to People, on Jan. 27, 2025, another boy passed away after being found in a pond at a Virginia Beach apartment complex. Juan Sebastian Mejia Acevedo was only 12 years old. Police had searched for him for days; when they finally located him and conducted an autopsy, the cause of death was confirmed as drowning.
Such natural hazards are often the bane of specific communities. A fixture in your neighborhood can be life-threatening, yet it remains something residents must simply learn to navigate. A similar situation exists on Mulholland Drive, where the road itself seems inherently prone to accidents. Residents there constantly petition the local government, feeling as though they have exhausted their options. For Ms. White, however, the only way to handle her own neighborhood’s crisis was to act swiftly and decisively.
The child reportedly fell into the pond on Sunday afternoon. White recalled hearing her son outside yelling for help. When she emerged, she saw her son’s friend had fallen through the ice and immediately rushed toward him.
White said, “So once I get out here, I see the little boy in the opening right there, in that hole right there. He’s sitting up there with his arms on the ice, just kind of floating and crying.” However, as White reached the edge, she reportedly slipped on a pipe and fell into the freezing water as well.
By then, the boy’s father heard the commotion and was making his way toward his son to save both the child and the Good Samaritan. White warned him about the thin ice, but as the saying goes, “when it rains, it pours” — soon the father also fell through. White explained that was when they pivoted to “other measures.” She noted, “So at this point, [his] dad was able to get over to the front, and [he] grabbed him. And he carried him over to me and passed him off to me.”
The three eventually pulled themselves out of the pond and into warm blankets provided by White’s son. Norfolk Fire-Rescue arrived on-site and transported the 12-year-old to a hospital, where he is currently recovering.
This is the essence of being a neighbor. While they say “it takes a village to raise a child,” people seldom add that, in that equation, you must occasionally be the villager who steps up. We could all learn something from Ms. White.
Published: Feb 4, 2026 10:40 am