The parents of the Shymanskis’ five-year-old daughter, Lexi, had trained her on what to do in an emergency since they knew it might save her life. They were unaware that it would also rescue her mother and her sibling.
As she drove, Angela Shymanski was relaxed. The kids had eaten, and it was 8.30 a.m. All the essentials for a road trip were packed into their eight-seater automobile, which was full of gas. For five-year-old Lexi, they had a pop-up tent, toys, and snacks, and for ten-week-old Peter, they had a pink blanket and seven days’ worth of clothes, all of which had already been used.
Angela concluded that it wasn’t important. She decided that for the eight-hour trip back to Prince George, British Columbia, her kid would be more comfortable wearing diapers because it was 26 degrees Celsius in central Alberta, Canada, the warmest June on record.
Previously, the 28-year-old had traveled these 500 miles by herself. She had friends from college all throughout Alberta, as well as a sister-in-law who lived in Sylvan Lake and an older sister who lived in Calgary. Travis, a mechanic for oil refinery instruments, was unable to join the group for the weeklong holiday, but swimming and first-aid instructor Angela was eager to introduce her friends to baby Peter.
Lexi was also planning a significant vacation. On June 1, 2015, the day they left Prince George, the countdown to daycare began. By the end of the week, owing to Angela, Lexi had seen gorillas at the Calgary Zoo, picnicked with family, spun around on rides at amusement parks, and made sandcastles at the beach.
While traveling along the Icefields Parkway, Angela accidentally missed her first turnoff. Rather than looping back, she chose to continue west on a slightly longer but more beautiful route through the Rockies. The amount of time lost would not have been significant if it weren’t for a 30-minute piece of road construction.
The repeated stops and starts irritated Peter, who was now shrieking in the back-facing car seat next to Lexi. In the player, she inserted a CD and hoped for the best.
In a short time, both children were slouched in their car seats.
Once she was finally out of the construction zone, Angela sped up to just under the 60 mph speed limit. As the hum of the road and the warmth of the sun, together with the lulling music, quickly began to have a calming effect, Angela opened the window in the hopes that the blast of breeze would hold her focus while she looked for a rest stop.
Angela briefly slid her eyelids shut.
Exact one year prior, Lexi had learned the most important lesson of her short life.
“‘Mom, wake up!’” When Lexi spotted her mother, she yelled. “Wake up,”.
The Shymanskis observe family worship night, as do many Jehovah’s Witnesses. On this particular night, they were preparing Lexi for a possible future catastrophe; a cousin of Travis’s had had recently lost his home to a flood, and they wanted to be ready in case something similar occurred.
A duffel bag filled with water bottles, canned goods, a first-aid kit, money, CPR masks, extra clothing, and toys was put into a closet by the front door by the young Shymanski family.
They then instructed Lexi to evacuate to the driveway if the smoke alarms began to sound after showing her the smoke alarms. Ask for help and don’t glance back; don’t look for anything or anyone. As an example, the three of them ran barefoot half a mile to the next neighbor’s house since they didn’t think a little child with limited vocabulary and geographic knowledge could contact 911.
Lexi absorbed all that was said to her. Months later, over dinner, a smoke alarm went off, revealing this. Before Angela could reset it, Lexi was running to the driveway. She didn’t look back at him.
Whose fault was it that the electricity was shut off? was Lexi’s instant response.
Only a short while ago, the day was lovely. Her neck hurt, the car horn was blaring, it was completely dark, and Peter was crying.
Lexi leaned out to touch him, his tent had flopped forward and popped open. As she made her way around the thin canvas, the girl sensed her little brother’s grasp. When Lexi grabbed for the doorknob, she discovered that it was covered by a huge white pillow, which was one of the side airbags that had destroyed the windows.
She did what her parents had always done for her and placed her fingers on the pins of her five-point harness. Once the restraints were released, Lexi was able to escape the vehicle, but when she tried to open the door, it was jammed.
The car door ultimately fell open as Lexi slouched onto her side and kicked at it, letting sunlight pour inside.
She then observed her mother dozing off on a much larger pillow in the front seat. She yelled, “Mum, wake up!” The speaker exclaims, “Wake up!” Angela didn’t say anything.
With stones the size of beanbag chairs, trees, and no ropes, the steep hillside outside the SUV reminded Lexi of the indoor rock climbing gym she liked to visit. The truck’s collision with the massive evergreen was the only thing stopping her family from falling down the slope.
Lexi indicated the SUV in the ditch that had been damaged.
While crawling through glass, rocks, branches, and pine needles to the highway where her mother had fled, Lexi’s flip-flops—which had been torn off in the collision—were missing. Despite this, she felt no discomfort.
The Jiriks were about halfway through their journey when they decided to eat lunch by the side of the road.
Since they chose to travel through Jasper National Park instead of the scenic route, which added two hours to their journey from Wasilla, Alaska, to Minnesota, where Loni and Jeremiah met and started their family, they weren’t in a rush. Once their bellies were filled and their bodies were rested, the couple, their three kids, and their two dogs piled back into the silver minivan for the last stretch.
“Stop!” As soon as Jeremiah turned onto the highway, Loni yelled. About 15 yards away, she pointed to a young, blonde child emerging from the ditch wearing shorts and a tank top. The young woman in her underwear suddenly appeared, bouncing up and down and waving her arms at oncoming cars. Jeremiah halted his vehicle after turning on his danger lights.
“Help!” As she sprinted in their direction,” Lexi yelled. “My mum needs help now more than ever!”
Jeremiah noticed the walkway that was surrounded by trees. Nobody else was present in the vicinity. He asked, “Where’s your mother?” to Lexi. A crashed SUV lying in a ditch was indicated by the youngster. Jeremiah, a skilled hiker who works in high elevations installing power lines, sped down the slope in his sandals without pausing.
Just as Angela Shymanski was coming to, Jeremiah came rushing down the slope. She looked across at the stranger, her face swollen and scratched. ” I’m such an idiot,” she confessed. “I should have stopped sooner.” He could hardly hear her remarks over the blaring of the car horn; until Angela mentioned Peter, he didn’t even see the baby crying.
Peter was trapped in his harness because the infant seat had unfastened and flipped forward, leaving little space between the back of the steel-framed seat and the ground. Jeremiah unlatched the baby, wrapped him in his blanket, and then clambered up to Loni.
Due to poor reception near the base of the Rocky Mountains, his wife had tried to call 911 but had been unable. She gave up and started flagging down passing vehicles; five vehicles passed before a jeep finally slowed dowAfter passing the baby off to Loni and returning to Angela with a former firefighter in tow, Jeremiah emerged carrying something that was wrapped in pink. He identified a baby girl. He announced to Loni that it was a newborn girl before handing the child over and going back to Angela with the former firefighter in tow.
After Angela had calmed down, Nowicki started going over the injury-assessment checklist. The woman’s chest had been hurt by the seat belt, but her lower back was also in agonizing discomfort. “Can you move your hands at all?” Can you bind your fingers together in a fist? Nowicki commanded, “Wiggle your toes.” Everything seemed to be working, but he wouldn’t allow her go without a stretcher.
“The rescuers needed ropes to get up and down the embankment Lexi had climbed alone and barefoot.”
Instead, he requested Angela’s husband’s phone number, which he would then provide to the emergency personnel Loni had called in via the satellite radio of a passing forestry worker. Jeremiah was drawing the numbers on the dusty, broken glass with his finger while he searched under the bumper for the battery connections. Before ambulance sirens broke the silence, the three of them waited for 20 minutes in complete silence with just the sound of birds chirping.
The rescuers—paramedics and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—needed ropes to move up and down the embankment that Lexi had climbed unaided and barefoot.
Travis Shymanski was eating his lunch at his work when Angela called, mumbling something about an accident and the kids being okay. In less than an hour, the 29-year-old was on a plane headed for Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital, where his wife had been flown. At Jasper’s Seton General Hospital, Angela had gone into shock and needed to be revived. She had suffered injuries to her brain, lungs, liver, and back, but she was now conscious.
Twenty-four hours after the accident, Angela’s condition seemed to be somewhat improving. She had amnesia-like symptoms, persistent nerve damage in her left leg, and was told she would never be able to compete in competitive swimming, gymnastics, or running again—but she might be able to walk. Peter, on the other hand, was having trouble swallowing his formula after being released. In order to determine whether he had any brain damage, they readmitted him and ran a CT scan. The newborn had hemorrhage and intracranial edema, which were both surgically addressed. He would be fine after a few stressful days, it was decided.
The family was welcomed back to Edmonton by the Royal Canadian Humane Association in November 2015. The charity was going to award Lexi a medal for bravery.
A reporter asked the young honoree about her plans for the medal during the awards ceremony. She stated that she intended to bring it to school for a show-and-tell. But when Lexi got back to Prince George, she had a change of heart. She decided to bring baby Peter instead.
