By As a Tomball, Texas, thunderstorm raged, Bryan Pederson called home. “I’m a few minutes away,” he told his wife, Sarah. She was still on the line when, seconds later, a tree crashed on top of his Yukon, leaving Bryan trapped between the collapsed roof and the console.
“Can’t…breathe,” he groaned into the phone.
“Hold on!” Sarah cried out. “I’ll be right there!”
Single mom Veronica Marin was also on her way home with her three young children when they spotted the Yukon. “Stay here,” Veronica told them. “Mommy has to go help.”
Bryan was barely conscious when Veronica pounded on the window. “Are there any children in the back seat?” she shouted, and when Bryan groggily shook his head no, she told him, “You have to get out—now!”
“Can’t…move,” Bryan groaned, and as Veronica began tugging at the door handle, another motorist, Travis Lennon, arrived.
“I’ll get a pry bar,” Travis said, and rushed off.
The window switch still worked, and when Bryan slid it down Veronica reached in. “My seat belt,” Bryan said, and Veronica quickly unclipped it.
In an adrenaline rush, Veronica grabbed Bryan by the arms and tugged with all her might. Slowly, inch by inch, Bryan’s 6’7″, 270-pound frame began to move. “Almost there!” she grunted, and as Travis returned with a pry bar, Bryan slipped through the window and collapsed on the pavement.
“I don’t know how you did that!” Travis marveled as he helped Bryan up.
“Thank you,” he tried saying, but Veronica was already gone.
Sarah used an app to locate her husband, and after thanking Travis, the couple drove to the hospital. “I’ll give you something for your back and bruised ribs, but otherwise you look good,” the doctor said, amazed.
The next morning, Bryan called Travis to thank him again. But neither men had any information about Veronica.
I’m looking for the woman who saved me, Bryan posted on a local message board.
Several days later, he heard from Veronica. “I’m sorry I left so fast—my kids were hungry.”
Bryan arranged to meet with Travis and Veronica. That was when he learned Veronica was a single mom struggling to keep food on the table.
Bryan took Veronica to a grocery store and filled her cart, but he felt that wasn’t enough.
“You mentioned you’re saving to fix the floors in your mobile home,” he said. “I want to help.”
Bryan started a GoFundMe, and when a local TV station picked up the story, contributions surged to over $60,000!
Bryan reached out to Braustin Homes on Facebook, sharing Veronica’s heroism.
“We’ll give you what you need at cost,” said the co-owner of Braustin Homes, Jason Pina.
Veronica gasped when Bryan told her he was actually going to replace the entire home.
Veronica threw a party the day her new home arrived. “I still can’t believe this all happened to me,” she says. “But I just did what needed doing—what people are supposed to do for one another.”
