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Husband made brave decision after wife died after being eaten by 13ft shark without anyone noticing
The husband of a woman killed after being eaten by a 13ft shark has returned to the open water to remember his late wife.
63-year-old Christine Armstrong had been swimming with her husband, Rob, and four friends off the coast of Tathra, a scenic coastal town on the Sapphire Coast in New South Wales, Australia.
Due to spinal problems, Christine left the group to swim back to shore. But when they returned, she was nowhere to be found. In fact, she had been "swallowed" by a 13ft shark while their backs had been turned.
Now, despite his tragic loss, Rob Armstrong was determined to pay tribute to his wife in the way she would have most appreciated - by returning to the ocean.
How husband of shark attack victim paid tribute to "beautiful and generous" late wife
Returning to Tathra Beach at sunrise, Rob Armstrong paddled out with a group of his wife's closest friends - and even wore his wife's own floral swimming cap as they swam back to the spot where she'd died.
"We’re a family here and we look after each other. We’ve been through a lot together and there’s no way we’re going to let any bloody shark dictate to us," Armstrong says as he paid tribute to his wife of 44 years.
He paid tribute to his "beautiful and generous" late wife, and also admitted that the site of their tribute to her was no coincidence, as she wouldn't want her death to taint her friends' enjoyment of the sea.
"If we didn’t go back in the water," Armstrong went on to say, "she would spank all our arses."
Shark attack victim "wouldn't have known" what was happening as she died
Christine Armstrong was a strong and accomplished swimmer, holding a bronze medal as an instructor herself. The beach where she was killed was also not new to her - it was the same spot she'd swum in every day for the past 14 years before her death.
Her fatal error, it seemed, was turning away from her group and making her way back to the shore, succumbing to an old spinal injury that was playing up.
Her husband had originally spotted what seemed to be a shark in the water less than 10m away from his group...but already thought his wife had gotten safely back to shore.
Alarm bells were raised, however, when the group returned and Christine was nowhere to be found. Her goggles and swimming cap were recovered, but no trace of her body was ever found.
The shark that killed her is believed to be a bronze whaler, also known as a copper shark, which can grow up to 13 feet.
However, Rob Armstrong finds comfort in the fact that the attack on his wife was probably over before she even had time to realise what was happening.
"I am absolutely positively certain with all my experience that she wouldn’t have known what hit her," he told News.com.au.
“The shark was of such a size it has consumed her basically completely so she wouldn’t have even known it happened.
“She went in a happy state of mind and we both have said to each other you do things you love, we wouldn’t have lived if we hadn’t done those things.