JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Saturday started as a joyous day for Daisy Hicks.
The 84-year-old left the Mary Singleton Senior Center in Jacksonville with the Wilder Park Senior Traveling Club that morning, ready to enjoy a day learning about the Gullah Geechee culture on Sapelo Island.
"Everything was going really nice. It was a good day," Hicks said.
Hicks' group was getting ready to leave the island the same way they came: walking back over the gangway and onto the ferry that brought them there.
"While I was sitting there and I was just talking to everybody," she said, "All I heard was 'BAM!'"
According to officials, 20 people fell into the water as the gangway at the Marsh Landing Dock on Sapelo Island collapsed.
Hicks, waiting to cross the gangway, watched it all in horror.
"It was an ordeal," Hicks said. "I can still see those people bobbling around in that water. I can still hear people screaming I can still see that lady that was going around asking for blankets."
"I think it was too much weight on it because they had all them walkers, they had all them wheelchairs, they had all them people and that thing just BAM. It just went out," she said. "It was a traumatic day. It was a day I don’t want to see no more."
Seven people lost their lives. The oldest victim, 93-year-old Carlotta McIntosh, was a long time member of Hicks travel group.
"It was just so pitiful especially to see Ms. McIntosh because she was the life of our club," said Hicks, "everywhere that club goes she would always be there. She had a walker but she could still get on that walker and go."
Daisy Hicks now left reliving events from that day. A day supposed to be filled with happy memories now left with sad ones.
"The trip was well planned and it would have been great if that rail hadn’t fallen. It would have been a real great trip. Everybody would have come back and we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in right now," she said.