Dawson Smith is mourning the loss of his mother, 51-year-old Regina Smith, after her body was recovered near Noccalula Falls in the Black Creek gorge Tuesday morning. Search and rescue crews found Regina's body 200 feet from the mouth of the gorge after she went missing Sunday evening, according to Gadsden Fire Chief Vance Brown.

"My mom, her entire life was water. My mom, the second she found out she could buy a house on the lake, she did. If we went over to see her, most of the time, we wouldn't find her inside. If we went out to the lake, we'd find her out there," Dawson said.

Regina lived in Lincoln on Logan Martin Lake. She enjoyed the ocean, waterfalls, and rapids.

"Just the sound and peace for her was a big deal," he said. "[Noccalula Falls] is somewhere she loved. We came here many, many times a year. There are family pictures out here from when I was 10 years old, and then there's a picture from last Mother's Day. Me and her sitting under the falls."

Dawson said his mother was comfortable around Noccalula Falls.

"I would probably say too comfortable," he said.

Dawson was in Oklahoma on Sunday, May 25, when his family took another trip to the Falls.

His younger brother was with his mother.

"They were down in the pool there, and they were swimming. My brother said, 'Mom, come back. You are floating too far away.' She said, 'No, I'm okay.' She was just floating down the river. We do a lot of the lazy river and stuff in Pell City. I think my mom maybe misjudged what she was dealing with. When she was floating away and she went out of vision, the last thing they heard her say was, 'This is the best day of my life,'" Dawson said.

Shortly after, 911 was called for a missing woman, and the search for Regina began.

"When my brother initially told me, he'd gotten out of the trail. It was dark, and it was raining. My initial thought was that my mom was trying to find her way out, and she would eventually find her way out," Dawson said. "I'd held out hope. I prayed because that's all I could do out there."

He took the first flight back to Alabama and came to Gadsden.

"I wanted to come find my mom. I wanted to come save my mom," Dawson said.

He noted dozens of family members, friends, and first responders assisted with the search Monday. However, as the day continued, he knew the possibility of finding his mother alive was shrinking.

"When we never found anything, and I saw the state of the rapids, the thermal drones didn't pick anything up, and the scent dogs kind of stopped in the area she was last scene, in my mind, I kind of understood that my mom was going to turn up eventually and it would either have to do with the water getting so high that she turned up or it getting shallow again so that we could find her," Dawson said.

Tuesday was shocking.

"Shocking in the sense of not being able to talk to your mom again. Not being able to go out to eat with her. We bought a house last year, and I called my mom. She was there touring every house with us. So, shocking in that way," Dawson explained.

In addition to his younger brother, Dawson has a younger sister. Dawson said his brother wasn't speaking much, and his sister had stayed at the Falls since her mother disappeared. Both continued to process the loss.

Dawson was thankful his mother's body was recovered within a couple of days rather than the family waiting for closure.

Dawson and Regina shared a special bond.

"I was born on my mom's birthday. She says that I am the best gift she ever got. For our birthday we would go to the beach. We loved the sound of the water and the sound of the ocean. We always got a beachfront condo. We'd open the door to the little patio area. My mom would sleep in a zero-gravity chair out there on the balcony just to hear the ocean. I would sleep on the couch closest to the door I could get. We would just listen to the ocean and wouldn't even use the beds in the condo we were staying at just because we wanted to hear the water," he said.

Dawson continued to reflect on his mother's love of the water and her smile, which he said was never-ending.

"My mom was happy here. I love her," he said.

Regina's body was located just after 11 a.m. by crews searching the area on foot. A drone confirmed the sighting from the ground crew. A high-angle rope recovery was conducted.

It took crews until just before 2 p.m. to lift the body to the top of the gorge. Chief Brown described the conditions in the area as "treacherous."

He encouraged the public to avoid the Black Creek gorge, citing the presence of dangerous rapids, steep rocks, and underwater caverns.

"We do have main walking trails that cover about four miles from here behind the wedding chapel that go all the way down to Station 4 in Alabama City. We do have fingers of walking trails that go off of that. It is a primitive area. Folks go off on those trails. We encourage them to stay away from that. It is absolutely a place no one needs to go," Brown said. "Come to the Falls. Stay out of the gorge."

Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford said there are signs, fencing, and cameras in the area around the Falls.

Extensive search efforts took place Sunday night through Tuesday morning as crews dealt with bad weather. A dive team was not deployed due to the dangers of the rapids.

"We made concerted effort to do a ground and pound, is what we would call it," Vance said. "We had three drones in the air throughout this entire process."

Rescue personnel from departments in Etowah, Cherokee, Dekalb, St. Clair, and Jefferson counties assisted with the search.