Tyngsborough sixth grader rescues 5-year-old boy from stone well: ‘I was just thinking, what can I do?'

Boston Globe

14 hours ago

With her son 15 feet underground and hanging tightly to a metal pipe, Freeman screamed for help.
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An old well sits on the Freeman family's front yard in Tyngsboro. For decades, the metal covering was on tight, Kathleen Freeman said. But on Aug. 15, rusted metal wiring holding the cover together fell apart, she said.
Kathleen Freeman
Other than the frenzy around the well, the street along Mascuppic Lake was quiet and deserted. Driveways were empty, and Freeman was worried they were alone, without help.
She tried, for a moment, to go inside to get to a phone, but that made the 5-year-old cry harder.
'When my son couldn't see me, he got hysterical,' Freeman said. 'My body knew it had to stay where Jack could see me.'
Jack Bissais sits on a carnival ride at the Westford apple blossom festival in May 2025.
Kathleen Freeman
Within a minute, an 11-year-old neighbor, Juliana Fischer, raced to the pair's rescue.
Juliana had been watching 'Rush Hour 3″ with her dad around noon Friday when she heard an adult yell outside — and not in the playful way she's used to hearing from the neighborhood kids.
The rising sixth grader ran outside, instinctively calling 911 on her cell phone. She lifted a 12-foot ladder all by herself, carrying it from along the side of the house to the well.
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'I see Juliana — thank God — running from across the street," Freeman said. 'She's already on the phone with the dispatcher — she did an unbelievable job."
'I was just thinking, 'what can I do? what's going on?,' Juliana said in a phone interview Monday.
She told the 911 operator where they were, and answered a few more questions before passing the phone to Freeman.
Juliana Fischer, 11, plays soccer in Tyngsboro and is an incoming sixth grade student at Lloyd G. Blanchard Middle School in Westford.
Anne Fischer
Juliana, who is 5′7″ and a star soccer player, gently lowered the ladder into the well.
'There was definitely that adrenaline, and I picked it up as strong and as fast as I could,' she said.
Seconds later, Juliana's father arrived with a
rope, and the group instructed Jack to climb slowly up the ladder.
'I am so grateful that Juliana was in the right place at the right time,' said her mother, Anne Fischer.
The moment Freeman's son climbed into her arms, she heard sirens as the fire department arrived, she said.
Post-rescue, Juliana's mom said she is being extra generous when it comes to her daughter's back-to-school wish list, which includes Converse shoes, Sambas, and a new North Face backpack for her first day of classes at Lloyd G. Blanchard Middle School in Westford.
'She's spoiled anyways, but she's getting a little extra love because of her heroics,' said Fischer, 52.
Jack was taken to the emergency room, where medical staff said he was all clear, Freeman said. He just had a few scratches on one arm.
'I was stepping on the top and I fell in,' Jack said, recalling the incident. 'I looked up and saw the sky, I wanted my mama.'
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By Saturday, Jack was in a great mood, his mother said, just in time for a family cookout with ravioli and macaroni from Family Pizza Inc.
'We got very lucky that he went down with his feet first,' Juliana said.
Claire Thornton can be reached at