Mom Trapped in Snowstorm Pens Goodbye Letters to Her Daughters

Rossi and her 17-year-old daughter, Madelyn. Photo by John Hickey/Buffalo News

As a parent, you never want to think of what your final words to your kids will be. But that’s exactly what Karen Rossi, a pharmacy technician from Lancaster, New York, had to do when her car got trapped under a snowbank for 13 hours during last week’s epic storm. The mom of two, 47, was on her way home from the night shift at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo when her car got stuck in the snow. Then, a passing plow buried her blue Chevy Cobalt even more, making it impossible for Rossi to dig herself out.

"I felt like I was underground, buried in a casket," Rossi told The Buffalo News. “It was surreal. It was just silent for hours. Nobody came. And my phone had died.”

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Over the course of the 13 hours — from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday — Rossi alternated between trying to dig her way to the surface and staying in her car to keep warm. But the car was running out of fuel.

Before her phone died, Rossi called her 17-year-old daughter, Madelyn, who warned her to keep the car’s tailpipe clear. If it got clogged, Rossi could risk getting 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 said. "Every hour and a half, I would go back. The tunnel would collapse, and I’d have to dig again."

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While sitting in the car, Rossi says she started to reflect on her life. “You never think this is the way you’re going to pass away. I started to think about my life and my family and my daughters.” And so, once her phone died after repeatedly texting her daughters to tell them she loves them, Rossi decided to write them each a final letter.

After each note was complete, Rossi continued to climb out through her car window, dig her way to the top using the sweatshirt and a red snow brush, and try to flag passersby for help. Finally, after waving that snowbrush for what Rossi said felt like forever, she heard words she’s been praying for: “I see you, I’m going to get you out. I have a shovel.”

Good samaritan Dave Edwards, on his way home from work, dug her out and saved her life. “He pulled me over the snowbank and put me in his truck,” she said. “I was disoriented and soaking wet and freezing cold. He stayed with me and he talked with me. I kept realizing 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.”

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After being safely delivered  to a friend’s home — the entrance to her own housing development was blocked due to snow — Rossi says she had a new outlook on life. “I’ll never think about things the same. I made so many promises to myself in the car. I’ll never sweat the small stuff again,” she said.

Rossi survived a living nightmare, and says she still has those letters to her daughters. “My kids don’t even want to see them,” she said. But she’s holding onto them anyway, should her daughters ever need a reminder of how very much they mean to her.