Julie Bowen, from TV's Modern Family, is now being dubbed a hero on social media for sweeping in and looking after an injured hiker, Minnie John of Oradell, New Jersey.
John fainted and landed face-first onto a rock after she stopped to rest after hiking through Utah's Arches National Park.
When she regained consciousness with her head in her hands, John said she wondered if she "might be watching TV," because the voice telling her "everything was going to be okay" sounded familiar.
She later realized the voice of the person who was cleaning her face was that of Bowen, who was with her sister Annie when they witnessed John passing out.
"They could have just ignored me, passed on, but they didn't," said John on Saturday.
"She could have gone on -- she must have had a busy agenda that was disturbed because of me. They treated me, a stranger, with love and respect."
John went to visit the National Park with her husband, Shaji, and their son, Brandon, to see the famed Delicate Arch—a tourist landmark that is the largest free-standing arch in the park. It was on her "bucket list."
With still a 15-minute walk away from the famous arch, John, who is diabetic, said she couldn't continue because she had low blood sugar, was dehydrated, and realized she had forgotten to eat since breakfast.
After hiking for an hour and a half, she stopped to rest and encouraged Shaji and Brandon to go on ahead so she could take a break.
"I would not forgive myself if we had to go back down without seeing this site after coming so far," she recounted, in a three-part Facebook post.
"There are no trail guides here," she added.
"There are only mostly young healthy trekkers with backpacks going up and down. I sat there holding my head in hands and waited."
Bowen, who is best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the long-running ABC comedy, immediately tended to John after watching her bad fall.
John continued in her post.
"After so many more questions and sticking gooey things in my mouth, giving me electrolytes, they lifted me up as I opened my eyes and set me back on that rock, that face looked so familiar again and I asked her again if I knew her or was she famous and the doctor said yes."
"Her sister, the doctor asked me to guess and I told her I just hit my head, I can't remember. She said smiling 'Modern Family' and I said of course!"
John said they used her cellphone to call Brandon, who had gone 20 minutes ahead of her, to let him know what happened.
While they waited for the rest of the family to return, John had a request.
"I said, 'Can I take a picture?' and Julie said, 'Of course,' and gave me a big hug and we took a picture," John said.
"They were so down to earth, so genuine, so sweet: Not at all how you might expect a big actor or a big doctor to be -- which they are. They were just so humble, so loving."
When Shaji and Brandon arrived, John said "They were so frantic."
"Had I fallen sideways or backwards, I would have split my head."
According to CNN, John was taken to Moab Regional Hospital, where she received five stitches and was told she fractured her nose.
The staff there also mentioned to her that many visitors to the national park have underestimated the difficulty of the trails there, especially in intense heat, and have often gone ill-prepared.
The incredible encounter with Bowen was one John would never forget.
"I knew I'd never meet them again but I appreciated and admired the human part of what they did -- selfless, not selfish," she said.
"We tend to forget the daily kindnesses we encounter. We're blind to everything around us and don't imagine that people will be so good, kind and caring."
In spite of her accident, John expressed having no regrets.
"Daredevil or dumb as can be, I still consider this trek up the mountain as one of my proudest achievements in my life," she wrote in her post.
"Sometimes you need to take those chances in life to live to experience heights and depths."
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit