Celebrating Mother’s Day has taken on a whole new meaning for a family in North Texas.
A devastating explosion in Navarro County leveled a house and nearly cost their mother her life.
Margaret Rowland shared her story of survival for the first time on Sunday.
“I think today, reality just hit me. I am really, I am here,” said Rowland from her hospital bed.
Stitches, too numerous to count, crawl up her right leg and on part of her left foot.
A bandage covers just below her right knee, the rest of her leg had to be amputated.
While the scars are visible, Rowland’s will to live is even more pronounced.
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“I just have a strong will,” she said becoming emotional. “I have a love for God that is extremely deep. I love my family and I’m going on. And that’s how I’m going to make it.”
Rowland spent part of Mother’s Day reading hand-written I love yous.
“Dear grandma, you’re the best,” she said holding up one card.
“This one, my 39th Mother’s Day, wow,” she said. “It means a lot. It means a lot. And I’ll cherish this day forever.”
It’s a day that almost didn’t come.
“This is the first time I’ve cried since this has happened,” she said wiping away the tears. “It’s just a godsend and I am here with my family and all the people that love me.”
Rowland was in Dawson, southwest of Corsicana, in April for a family reunion.
She remembers the family having dinner, coffee, then getting ready for bed.
“I heard something like a light pop, something zoomed by me, it got totally dark I remember I thought I was dangling up in the sky,” she said. “I knew this leg was behind me. That one I knew had a wound in it.”
Five people were injured in the blast.
Rowland says she received the worst injuries.
She endured four surgeries at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
Rowland was then transferred to Medical City Plano to rehabilitate her injuries.
Her daughters have been by her side through it all.
“I love you and I’m really proud of you and I’m thankful you fought,” said Angie Beene to her mother. “To know that she’s actually here, it could have been a lot different. This could’ve been the first holiday that we were having to go through without her.”
The family says the cause of the explosion is still being investigated, but it is presumed to be a propane-related problem that caused the blast.
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