As Hannah Gluth basked in the sun along the water’s edge at an Oak Harbor park Wednesday, every move she made was followed by warm, adoring eyes.

One little girl offered her a small shiny rock. Another appeared to find a tiny sea creature that she figured Gluth would surely find appealing. Yet another child cupped her hands with water and tried to cool Gluth off.

“Are you making sure I don’t dry out?” Gluth asked.

For two days this week, Hannah Gluth fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming a mermaid.

Not for real, of course, though be careful who you tell that to.

For the dozens of children who came to Windjammer Park and saw her swimming in the lagoon, she looked about as real as the legend has been portrayed.

Gluth, 19, from Oak Harbor, wore a long, teal blue mermaid tail custom made to look as it was an extension of her body.

The tail was equipped with a large, sturdy monofin used by Gluth to power through the water. When she plunged below the surface, she revealed the tail, which turned heads around the park.

But most of the time, Gluth just sat in shallow water, kicking up her tail and attracting swarms of children and their mothers, most who heard about it through social media.

What compelled her initially to splash around in the lagoon was personal. On Tuesday morning, she lost her grandfather, Franklin Barnes, a sailing enthusiast and retired Navy sailor who had lived on his boat at the marina, teaching his granddaughter about the finer points of the sea.

She had worn her mermaid outfit in public before at the Penn Cove Musselfest, and it seemed like the right time again, sort of as a tribute to her grandpa.

“I really needed to be out in the water,” Gluth said.

“They were really close,” said Tina Gluth, her mom.

What surprised Hannah was the stir it created and the discussion that continued on social media. She announced that she would appear again as a mermaid the next day.

“I used to think they were real,” Hannah said.

The tail is made of silicone on the outside and neoprene on the inside. Hannah said she had to provide seamstress-type measurements to have it custom-made.

Kids touched her tail and didn’t know any better.

Moms watched from nearby.

“We were more excited about it than they were,” Tabetha Williams said with a laugh.

Williams, from Greenbank, brought her daughter, as did Aaron Wiley of Coupeville.

“I think a lot of little girls in their lives have fantasies that they might see a mermaid,” Wiley said.

Hannah, who works as a barista, would like to dress up as a mermaid more often.

Her appearances also were intended to publicize a side business pursuit. She has created her own “Whidbey Island Mermaid” Facebook page, which explains that she can be hired for public events, birthdays and pool parties.

“She’s having a lot of fun,” said her dad, Brad Gluth.

Her parents started noticing her interest in mermaids when she was about 5-years-old, but didn’t realize she’d someday transform into one.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Tina Gluth said. “I’m so proud of her.”