Cover Story
Birmingham’s Ann Blair Gribbin epitomizes a mother’s love in the way she’s cared for and advocated for her daughter Lulu after a terrifying shark attack in 2024 that left Lulu fighting for her life. Since the attack that made international news in June of 2024, the Gribbins have become fearless examples of resiliency and faith-in-action. Lulu was recently named Southern Living’s 2025 “Southerner of the Year” and was vital in the passing of Lulu’s Law, which provides a new shark attack alert system that is similar to an Amber Alert. She speaks regularly to groups of all ages, leads a foundation to advance lifesaving transformations for amputees, and is currently planning to compete in the 2028 Paralympic Games. Through the entire journey, Lulu’s mother Ann Blair says that faith has guided her Mountain Brook family and made it possible for her daughter to become a role model for so many.
The Life-Changing Shark Attack. Lulu was one of three people injured on the afternoon of June 7, 2024, when a bull shark attacked her on a Walton County beach on the Florida Gulf Coast. She’d been enjoying time in the ocean with her twin sister, Ellie, and other friends who’d all come on a mother-daughter beach trip. Ann Blair was walking back from lunch at a nearby restaurant when she discovered Lulu in distress on the beach. While hunting for sand dollars in waist-deep waters, a shark bit Lulu’s hand and leg. She was rescued from the water by two individuals nearby and pulled to shore, where they quickly created a tourniquet and dressed her wounds. First responders arrived on the scene, and she was flown to a Pensacola hospital. When she first saw her daughter on the beach, Ann Blair began screaming. “She was lifeless, her eyes closed, mouth white and pale,” Gribbin wrote in an account on Lulu’s CaringBridge website at the time of her hospitalization. “The wound on her leg, or all that was left of her leg, was something out of a movie.” Ann Blair knows that God saved her daughter for a reason–and she credits those on the beach for saving her life. “God put people there on the beach to save her, and we are so grateful for that. Medically, she shouldn’t be alive.” Doctors in Pensacola made the quick decision to amputate Lulu’s right leg halfway up (from the knee to her hip). Lulu also lost a hand and two-thirds of the blood in her body. She had many lifesaving surgeries, and when she woke up, her first words were “I made it.” Once stabilized, Lulu relocated to Charlotte, N.C., where she gained access to cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) therapy and other rehabilitation treatments that allowed her to walk out of the hospital after only 77 days—a milestone that typically takes amputees a year or more to achieve—and returned home to Birmingham with a prosthetic arm and leg. In all, Lulu underwent nine different medical procedures. 
Through it all, Ann Blair was by her daughter’s side. “We were in Pensacola for five days, and then in Charlotte, where we had hand doctors, specialists in surgery, etcetera, and were there for three months,” she remembers. “I’d stay in the hospital with her, and my husband Joe would come and bring the other kids.” Lulu herself had a hard time comprehending what she’d lost in the attack and subsequent surgeries. She described the sensation of her lost limbs in an interview with Southern Living by saying, “It’s like your arm is squeezing you and stinging you and poking you.” Looking back on the day of the initial attack, and all of the days of recovery afterwards, Ann Blair reflects in a way that’s both honest and inspiring. “Obviously, it was a terrible accident and nothing you want your kids to go through,” she says. “Of course, we [Ann Blair and husband Joe] cried together, but we didn’t want her to see that. We kept that away from her and tried to be positive.” Her message to her daughter has always been one of positivity. “I tell her, having one arm and one leg doesn’t define you,” Ann Blair says. “She looks different, but her mind is still there. And she has a really good attitude. She’s just trying to get better, and she knows she shouldn’t be here. She’s very thankful.” Lulu’s currently receiving physical therapy at Children’s Hospital while also staying in contact with her doctors in Charlotte. They’re also slowly adjusting to a “normal” life in Mountain Brook, where the Gribbin family attends St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and where Lulu and Ellie are juniors at Mountain Brook High School. Younger sister Maggie is in the 7th grade at Mountain Brook Junior High, and brother Tripp is in the 5th grade at Mountain Brook Elementary. 
Making a Difference. Lulu’s new normal is filled with a mixture of everyday teenage experiences and activities to help make a difference in the lives of others. She returned to school four months after the attack (with a combination of in-person and online studies) while also navigating recovery. She’s also exploring athletic opportunities. “She’s learning how to run again, and she has some lofty goals of being in the Paralympics in 2028,” explains Ann Blair. “She and her twin sister are both very athletic, and Lulu’s always been the most competitive. She has a competitive spirit, and she’s determined to succeed. I’m not surprised by that at all.” She’s also begun speaking to groups about her experience. “She recently did a speech at the local middle school, and everyone says she’s so inspiring. It was her first time really talking to her peers,” she says.Lulu and the Gribbin family have also been strongly involved in the formation of Lulu Strong, an organization that fights for research, awareness, and various issues related to the needs of people with prosthetics. Their experience in Charlotte built an appreciation for the work in prosthetics and the future possibilities in the community. “In Charlotte, they were working on virtual reality technology to help with phantom limb pain in legs,” Ann Blair says. “The body still thinks your legs are there, and our first goal for the foundation is to raise money for VR technology for legs.” Ann Blair says that Lulu’s experience was an anomaly; she was fitted for prosthetics immediately, but many people have to wait for six months to a year. “We’re trying to make life for amputees more easily accessible, and funds are needed for that,” she says. You can find more information on the foundation’s work at www.lulustrong.com.
The family was also involved in making Lulu’s Law a reality. The law, which is already in effect in Ala., has passed in the U.S. Senate and is being considered in the House. The law creates a system of communication that lowers the amount of time that sheriffs put up warning flags (which may have prevented Lulu’s attack if the family had been notified that another beachgoer had been attacked an hour earlier in the same area). With the law, notifications go to phones located in the “danger zone.”
Hope for the Future. Looking back over their two year journey, Ann Blair knows that God can take a difficult situation and create blessings from it. While the attack was a nightmare no mother wants for their child, Ann Blair credits her daughter’s strength–and God’s faithfulness–for creating an opportunity for the tragedy to make a difference in other people’s lives. “I think Lulu’s leaned a lot on her faith and she’s been trying to lean into her purpose,” Ann Blair says, adding, “She’s seen so many people who were worse…people with brain injuries and more serious injuries. It’s given her a special perspective. God saved her for a reason, and we know that.”
-Cheryl Wray
