An 84-year-old woman who survived being lost for five days in the woods couldn't believe her eyes when help arrived, according to the men who rescued her.

"She looked at us, 'Who are you? Am I hallucinating?' And I said, 'No, we're search and rescue," said Darryl Contois, with the Evelyn Memorial Search Team.

Contois said the first sign of Mary Byman, who got lost in Spur Woods while berry picking last Wednesday, came shortly after he spotted a deer.

Using a gun he had brought along for bear safety during the search, he took a shot at the deer.

"And then all of a sudden I hear somebody yell, 'Help me,' but way off to the distance, south," he said,

Contois said he shot a second time.

"And then I heard again, 'Help me' off to the distance, but it was very faint," Contois said.

"I knew it was her," said another member of the search team, Bocephas Thompson, who said he made his way to an area of cell service.

They said when they found Byman, she was sitting in water by a tree without shoes, socks or a hat on.

“She was soaked. I don’t think she would’ve lasted another night,” Contois said. “She was already cold, and shaking.”

Contois said Byman told them she had a broken rib and was unable to walk, so they helped her out of the water and tried to keep her comfortable with a fire until emergency crews arrived.

RCMP said firefighters spent more than two hours clearing a path to reach Byman, and it took another two hours to safely get her out before she was taken to hospital.

Contois said the area she was found in can be unforgiving.

“Muskeg and swamp, we sunk up to our waists in water some places. We were soaking wet, cold. I can’t imagine how she felt,” he said.

A family’s relief

Byman’s daughter, Sherry Marginet, said her mother is recovering in hospital in Steinbach.

“She had taken quite a few falls, she was bruised, she's jaundice, her eyes are black,” said Marginet, who said she was being prepared for a worse outcome.

“They were sort of preparing us that it might be a body recovery, and so it was heartbreaking,” Marginet told CTV News.

She said she gave her mother full credit for surviving the ordeal, with no other food than the berries she came to the woods to pick.

"The first thing I said to her on the phone when I spoke to her was, ‘Oh you're a tough old bird aren't you.’"

-With files from CTV'S Jeff Keele