08/24/2026
๐จ๐ SHE BOARDED THAT BOAT WITH HER HUSBAND, HER THREE BABIES AND HER FAMILYโฆ LESS THAN 20 MINUTES LATER, SHE WAS FIGHTING FOR HER LIFE IN THE WATER WHILE ALMOST EVERYONE SHE LOVED WAS GONE. ๐๐จ
Her name is Tia Coleman.
July 19, 2018 was supposed to be a beautiful family vacation in Branson, Missouri.
Three generations together. Pictures. Laughter. Memories their children were supposed to grow up remembering.
Instead, it became the day Tia would spend the rest of her life wishing she could forget.
Thirty-one people boarded Stretch Duck 7 for a sightseeing trip on Table Rock Lake.
Severe thunderstorms were approaching.
The boat went onto the lake anyway.
Then the wind came.
Waves battered the vessel. Water poured inside.
And the boat began to sink.
Seventeen people never made it out alive.
But one family suffered a loss almost impossible to comprehend.
Eleven members of the Coleman family got on that boat together. Only TWO survived.
Tia was one of them.
Her 13-year-old nephew, Donovan Hall, was the other.
Tia went on vacation as a wife and a mother of three.
She came out of that lake without her husband, Glenn Coleman, 40โฆ
without Reece, 9โฆ
without Evan, 7โฆ
and without her 1-year-old baby girl, Arya.
๐ Her husband.
๐ All three of her babies.
๐ Her in-laws.
๐ Members of her extended family.
Gone in the same few terrifying minutes.
According to survivor testimony, passengers had been told they โwouldnโt needโ life jackets and were instructed to remain seated. As the boat filled with water, survivors described people desperately trying to escape while the fixed canopy made getting out even harder.
Imagine surviving that waterโฆ
then realizing your babies didnโt.
Imagine arriving in Branson with your children beside you and eventually having to leave without them.
The criminal charges filed against the captain and company supervisors were later dismissed. Civil cases were settled, and the tragedy eventually helped bring stronger federal safety requirements for amphibious passenger vessels.
But there is no law that can give Tia back what she lost.
No settlement can put three children back into their motherโs arms.
No amount of money can bring back the husband she expected to grow old beside.
A family boarded together.
A mother survived without her babies.
And a vacation photograph became a picture of people who had no idea how little time they had left together.
๐๏ธ Remember the 17 lives lost on Table Rock Lakeโand especially the nine members of the Coleman family who never made it home.