TRAVERSE CITY -- Amy Spitzley figured that sooner or later, her adventurous son would end up falling into a river.
Dorran Godfrey, 6, recently did just that with a tumble into the chilly Boardman River.
"He's just lucky he waited six and a half years, and I was there to help him," said Spitzley, of Traverse City, who's now able to put a comic spin on what was a scary situation.
Dorran busied himself tossing rocks and chunks of cement into the Boardman River near the Midtown Centre condominiums as his mother sliced apples for a picnic.
One of the cement chunks was too large, and Dorran's effort to throw it carried him with it into the river.
The water was over Dorran's head, and Spitzley jumped in after him. But she couldn't get a good foothold on the unstable riverbed, and the boardwalk loomed above her head.
"There wasn't any way I could get out," she said. "I didn't think of that before I jumped in."
Her daughter, Nerissa Godfrey, 9, ran up the boardwalk and yelled for help, frightened that her mom and brother could drown.
That's where Bonnie Deigh waded into the fray.
Deigh was enjoying Friday's balmy weather on her riverside deck when she heard Nerissa's calls for help. Deigh called 911 and ran to the water, where cold and wet mom and son were stuck.
"I was glad I didn't have to go in the water, because I'm not much of a swimmer," Deigh said. "I laid down on the boardwalk and I was able to pull the little guy out."
A man came along and helped pull Spitzley out, but he left before anyone could learn his identity.
Traverse City firefighters arrived and took Spitzley and Dorran into the ambulance to warm up.
They had slight hypothermia, said Capt. Marco Marcantoni.
"It was lucky the lady was there who pulled them out. It limited their exposure to the cold water," he said.
Before the ambulance arrived, Deigh cuddled Dorran to keep him warm while his waterlogged mom sat in shock.
"He was so sweet, sitting on my lap shivering, and he said, 'I'm not ever going to do that again. The rocks can go in the river, I'm not,'" Deigh said.
But it wasn't long until Dorran had another idea up his sleeve.
"My crazy son has been wanting to make the movie of his life since he was four: 'Dorran, The Movie,'" Spitzley said. "He told me about a half-hour after this, that he wanted to redo this for his movie someday. We need to teach him about stunt doubles."
