TWIN LAKE, Mich. — A Twin Lake woman and one of her saviors are strangers no more.
Simone Santos was involved in a car crash during the winter storm in early January, and a couple other drivers came to her rescue. However, she never got the chance to properly thank them, until Sunday.
“My boyfriend, he brought his favorite coffee mug. He said, 'I just remember it flipping in the air in front of my face,'" said Santos, recounting that crash with her new friend Tyler Falls, one of the men who helped that snowy Wednesday afternoon.
The two can laugh about what happened now, but Jan. 5 was a much different story.
Falls was driving south on US-31 toward Spring Lake. The 26-year-old forklifter was on his way to work at Sintel. It started out as any normal Wednesday, but it didn't end that way.
“I started to slide to the right a little bit and I caught it and got it back under control," Falls told FOX 17. "But they were all over like left, right, they completely sideways in the lane. Then when they start to slide into the ditch, it hit the ditch and flipped over. So it was pretty crazy situation.”
Falls said he didn't even have to think about what happened next — it was natural instinct.
“I didn't know what I was walking into," he said. "I didn't know if anybody was seriously injured. So I just prepared myself as best as I could. And I ran to the car as fast as I could.”
Santos said, “I just heard shuffling and I was like, 'Oh, someone’s here!'”
Falls helped pull Santos and her boyfriend from the car, saving them from any further damage. Santos called Falls a 'Godsend.'
“He really is my hero in my book, he will always be," she said.
Santos was so shaken up at the scene, she never really got the chance to thank Falls. However, after several texts and Facebook messages, FOX 17 helped make that reunion possible.
“To be able to go over there and hug him and tell him, actually, 'Thank you,' that was a really great feeling," Santos said.
Now, this unlikely interaction may just turn into a lifelong friendship.
“I don't have a lot of money, but I do know how to cook," Santos told Falls. "I would really like to make you guys dinner — you and your wife. That'd be cool.”
Santos said the other man who helped out that day is named Dylan. He did not want to be on the news, but Santos plans on thanking him in person as well.
