A mom has shared footage of the moment her one-year-old son ran off down their driveway towards the road with her in pursuit.
Randi Nichole told Newsweek how she felt “so panicked in that moment” knowing she would be unable to reach him before he made it down to the spot where he would be in harm’s way. But just when it seemed like her worst fears as a mother were about to be realized, something extraordinary happened.
Parents experience high levels of stress in their day to day lives. In 2024, the U.S. surgeon general’s advisory report found that 33 percent of parents experience high levels of stress over the period of a month compared to 20 percent of adults without children.
Nichole knows only too well just how stressful it can get, but things reached a whole other level of stress one morning recently while she was attempting to get her one-year-old son in the car.
In truth, she was already dealing with a lot that day. “Our babysitter was sick that day. Normally I would have left him home with her,” she said. “I’m also recovering from knee surgery and am using crutches and have a knee branch that doesn’t allow my knee to bend so it’s difficult to move quickly.”
That was stressful enough, but things were about to hit a whole new level as she attempted to get her son into the car. “I set him down for one second,” she said. “As soon as his feet touched the ground he took off running out of the garage and down our driveway which has a downhill slope.”
Nichole had little option but to give chase. However, as she was on crutches, she knew it would be next to impossible for her to reach her son before he got to the road. “I felt so panicked in that moment,” she said. “I was looking for cars as I was going after him.”
Nichole’s son was now mere meters away from serious danger, with his mom looking in every direction for some kind of help. When all seemed lost, out of nowhere, help arrived in the most unexpected form. “I noticed a FedEx van slowing down to turn onto our street,” Nichole said. “I waved in hopes that they would see us and they did.”
What followed next was captured on a security camera positioned at the top of Nichole’s driveway. Nichole has since shared the footage to her TikTok, @randinichole10, where it has already been watched 7.4 million times.
“As our one-year-old reached the end of the driveway he fell and the FedEx employees stopped to offer help,” Nichole said. “I immediately started to cry.”
Nichole had come so close to seeing her worst fears realized. Yet, at the last moment, two female FedEx employees had stepped in and changed everything. It’s difficult to imagine what might have played out had they not been there that day. Nichole is thankful they were.
“One of the women carried my son back to the garage and made sure I was okay,” she said. “I was so grateful for them stopping and helping me.”
That was the main reason she felt compelled to share the footage to social media. “I wanted to let Fedex know that they have two amazing employees that went above and beyond,” she said.
Since the video was filmed, Nichole has been able to find out the names of the women involved and has thanked them both personally. She hopes those watching the video take heart from what happened that day.
“Good people still show up for each other,” she said. “Even small acts can change someone’s whole day. Heroes aren’t always dramatic; sometimes they’re delivery drivers doing their route.”
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