- Brian Pederson of Tombal, Texas, was driving his SUV during the storm on May 16 when a tree fell and crushed his SUV, and a stranger nearby helped him pull it out from under the rubble.
- When Pederson learned that the Good Samaritan, Veronica Marin, was a single mother who needed some home repairs, he started a GoFundMe to raise funds for her.
- “I feel so blessed to be a part of Veronica's story and I want to help change her life for the better,” he told People magazine.
A Texas man is paying it forward to help a stranger who saved him when a tree fell and crushed his SUV three months ago.
“You often hear the phrase, 'right place, right time,' (for me it was 'wrong place, wrong time,')” Tomball survivor Brian Pederson told People on Friday, August 23. “But this is too many coincidences to be a coincidence.”
Pederson was on his way home during a storm on May 16 when he was waiting at a traffic light when a large oak tree fell on his SUV, crushing them both, CBS affiliate KHOU reported.
Ten other cars then showed up, but they all drove off, he recalled. But one of the drivers who actually helped, according to media reports, was a single mother, Veronica Marin, who was in a car with her three children when she saw the tree fall and got out of her car to help Pederson.
“I saw the tree fall on the truck,” Marin told KHOU in Spanish, “and what shocked me was that all the cars swerved and were right in front of me. Without thinking, my maternal instincts kicked in.”
Pederson realized the single mother also needed help, and in a GoFundMe he started to help her, he wrote that he panicked after the tree fell and had difficulty breathing when the roof of the SUV pressed against his body. He told People that during the ordeal, his wife called him “encouraging me to find a way to breathe even though I thought it was all over.”
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Pederson added that Marin and another well-wisher, Travis Lennon, pried open the passenger door, after which Marin got inside the car and unbuckled Pederson's seat belt.
“She grabbed me by the arm and kept pulling, encouraging me the whole time to get out of the car,” Pederson wrote. “I twisted and, with her help and guidance, managed to get out of the car and into position so she and Travis could pull me out of the car.”
A shocked Pederson sat in Lennon's truck while she waited for paramedics to arrive, while Marin returned to her car with the children and drove off before Pederson could get her contact information.
Pason told People magazine that she was able to walk away from the incident with only a sore back.
Wanting to express his gratitude, Pederson later found Marin on Facebook. “I got emotional and it was just going through my head: How do I thank someone who literally saved my life?” Pederson told KHOU.
The two were reunited at the fire station, where Pederson thanked Marin and later learned that Marin was a single mother of three who suffered from chronic back pain, worked full time, and “struggled to pay for a house, a car, and child care while working as many hours as she could to give her kids a better life.”
After visiting her home, he also found that the house was “badly in need of repairs.”
“Many people in the community have been amazed by her bravery and selfless act and have asked how they can help,” he wrote. “Please consider donating to help raise funds to properly repair her home. If we have any money left over, we will donate it to Veronica to help support her family.”
As of publication, the fundraiser has raised more than $12,000.
Pederson has high praise for Marin. “I feel so blessed to have been a part of Veronica's story and hopefully helped change her life for the better,” he told People magazine. “She's an incredible person, considering what she's done for me.”
He also called Marin “an incredibly humble, God-fearing hero who asks for nothing in return and only cares about the well-being of complete strangers.”
“I'm so grateful for all of this,” Pederson continues, “not because I'm 'lucky,' but because I'm witnessing a much bigger plan unfold before my eyes, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.”