Ashley Aldridge was just getting ready to prepare lunch for her two toddlers, aged 1 and 2, when she heard someone calling for help. She saw that Earl Moorman, 75, was stuck in his electric wheelchair at the railroad crossing at Washington Street in Auburn, Ill.. Aldridge looked around for someone to mind her children, but after hearing the sound of the approaching train, she rushed out to save Moorman.
The 19-year-old first tried to move the chair but was unsuccessful, so she pulled the 200-pound man away. The Amtrak train crashed into the wheelchair a few seconds later.
"I was two seconds away from death. She's my guardian angel. She was sent there for a reason," Moorman said about the incident, according to the State Journal Register.
Aldridge was honored on Monday as a "Hometown Hero" and gifted with a supermarket shopping spree in nearby Chatham, about 210 miles southwest of Chicago.
"I'm pretty excited because we haven't been able to buy a whole bunch of food for the kids. I'm glad I can finally make them real food and not macaroni and cheese all the time," Aldridge said at Chatham Country Market, where she collected $187 in free food in three minutes, the Associated Press reported.
"At first I knew where I wanted to go, then I didn't know. I was trying to figure out what to grab, and I was trying to hurry. This is great. I'm just glad they did this for us," Aldridge said after the shopping spree, reported the State Journal Register.
Apart from the shopping spree, Aldridge was also honored with an honorary black belt from a local martial arts school and free Amtrak tickets. The honor and freebies come at an opportune time, as the family has recently been robbed off money meant for bills and food, reported Fox News.
