At Bowie High School's pep rally Friday afternoon, the band played, cheerleaders cheered and the head football coach wiped away tears.
"I'm just so glad to meet her," said head coach Danny DeArman, giving Eden Russom a side hug.
Saturday night, Russom was driving to Bible study in Hunt County when her SUV was overcome by flood waters.
"Within seconds it went from my feet being wet, to knee deep, to waist high," Russom recalled. "One of my biggest fears is to die drowning."
Yet Russom said she felt a peace that everything would be OK.
"I was like, God, I'm not supposed to die today," Russom said.
She said out of nowhere, one man, later identified as C.J. Mashburn, broke the back passenger window and dragged her out of the vehicle. Then Danny DeArman, who is head football coach at Bowie High School, sprang into action and carried her on his back to safety.
"It was just totally a miracle," said Russom. "And as soon at we got to dry land, he was gone."
Russom wanted to thank DeArman, but didn't know his name, until she told her story at church and a fellow parishioner remembered seeing cell phone video of the rescue online. That's when the connection was made and a plot was hatched to surprise the coach and Mashburn and thank them.
At Friday afternoon's pep rally, Russom walked through a huge blow-up helmet onto the football field, and DeArman couldn't contain the emotion.
"I think it was God to be honest with you," DeArman said. "I think He's the reason that I stopped." Mashburn agreed. "I was put there for a reason, " he said. "We were put there to do an act of kindness as a team."
Russom believes it was all God's work.
"I knew it wasn't my time to go," Russom said. "Life is precious and we have to treasure every second of it."
