A mother in Lancaster, New York has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving after being trapped in a snowstorm during last week's severe weather.
Karen Rossi's car became stuck, then buried in the snow in Buffalo, and she was stranded for 13 hours. Fearing that she would not make it out alive, she wrote goodbye letters to her two daughters.
The pharmacy technician was on her way home from the night shift at Mercy Hospital when she got stuck in the snow at 3am on November 18. A snow plow buried the Chevy Cobalt even further, making it impossible to reach the surface.
Rossi called her 17-year-old daughter, Madelyn, who told her to keep the car's tailpipe clear to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
"So I rolled the window down and used a sweatshirt to dig along the car to make a tunnel to keep the tailpipe clear," Rossi told The Buffalo News. "Every hour and a half, I would go back. The tunnel would collapse, and I'd have to dig again."
The car was running out of gas, and hours ticked away as Rossi struggled to get help.
"I felt like I was underground, buried in a casket," she explained. "It was surreal. It was just silent for hours. Nobody came. And my phone had died."
Realiing the severity of her situation, the 47-year-old decided to leave a letter for each of her children.
"You never think this is the way you're going to pass away," she admitted. "I started to think about my life and my family and my daughters."
For 13 hours, Rossi alternated between trying to stay warm in her car, and crawling out the window and through the snow in an attempt to summon help. She poked a red snowbrush through the dense snow in an attempt to flag passing vehicles.
Finally, at 4pm, Dave Edwards saw her and said: "I see you, I'm going to get you out. I have a shovel."
Edwards was on his way home from work when he saw Rossi and dug her out.
"He pulled me over the snowbank and put me in his truck," the grateful mum recounted.
"I was disoriented and soaking wet and freezing cold. He stayed with me and he talked with me. I kept realising he didn't have to do any of this stuff, but he was just an amazing person. I'm so thankful that God sent him."
Having survived a snowstorm, Rossi said she has a new outlook on life.
"I'll never think about things the same," she shared. "I made so many promises to myself in the car. I'll never sweat the small stuff again."
As for the letters she wrote, Rossi said her daughters don't want to read them, but she will hold on to them anyway.
