It was all a blur for 19-year-old Antonetta Miller Roman when she was involved a car crash in Fairfield, Calif., in January.
All she remembers was getting out of her car to check on the other driver, when all of a sudden a third car ran over her.
That’s when a complete stranger, who was reportedly driving the other way, stopped to help the teenage girl. Cissy Horne wrapped herself around the teen, shielding her from oncoming traffic until paramedics arrived.
“I had to get her off the highway,” Horne told local news station Kron 4. “I had looked down and seen what I didn’t want to … and I said I got you. I love you and we are OK and she said ‘I want my mom’ and I said ‘I know you do baby I know you do.’”
Roman had to have her right leg amputated after the crash and doctors told local news agencies that it is a miracle she is alive. In the two weeks that Roman was in hospital, she underwent 11 surgeries.
Through all of this, Horne visited Roman almost every day and they developed a close friendship.
“I know she came and visited me, I remember the stuffed animals she brought. We just clicked, she’s pretty much just like my mom,” Roman told local news station WBKO.
Both the women said the traumatic experience changed their lives forever.
“I’m just happy that she was there and did exactly what my mom would have done, that she was with me. I’m really happy that I had her,” Roman said.
As for Horne, she said she plans on sticking around until Roman is back to her regular self.
“They are my family, we’re going to go through this together. Her life that night was worth mine, no doubt; no doubt, no question,” Horne said.