CHERRYVILLE, N.C. (WJZY) — Two strangers are now forever bonded following Tuesday night’s violent storms in Cherryville.
Jason Day’s and Samantha Hartdige’s daughters were playing each other in softball when the storms started. The game was canceled due to the lightning, and both parents were in their cars leaving the field when a massive tree fell on top of Hartdige’s SUV.
“I’m definitely blessed to still be here,” said Hartdige. “To be in a car and watch your life flash before you, and you’re trapped in there not knowing how you’re going to get out, or if anyone can even help you.”
The instant Day saw the tree fall, he got out of his own truck to try to help Hartdige and her daughter get out. Before he could reach their car, he was hit by another falling tree.
“I guess a limb hit me and knocked me up into the air,” Day tried to recall. “I’ve heard stories that I went as high as the power lines.”
Day was knocked unconscious and says he did not wake up until he was being placed into the back of an ambulance. He now has 12 staples in the back of his head, a broken nose and cheekbone, and stitches on both sides of his face.
He’s lucky to be home, let alone alive.
“I feel like God laid his hand upon me and brought me through this,” said Day. “That’s the only thing I can attribute to me surviving all that and getting through it.”
On Wednesday, Day and Hartdige met in person for the first time. Through tears, Hartdige and her daughter thanked him.
When Queen City News asked Day whether he would do it all again, he offered, “Most definitely.”
