NEWS: California Nanny Injured After Saving 2-Year-Old Boy From Oncoming Car: ‘We Are Forever Grateful,’ Says Family

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A California nanny is still recovering after getting hit by an oncoming car that was headed towards a 2-year-old boy.

NEWS: California Nanny Injured After Saving 2-Year-Old Boy From Oncoming Car: ‘We Are Forever Grateful,’ Says Family

On March 28, Caroline Maurer was taking Fox — a 2-year-old boy she had nannied for since he was 4 weeks old — on a walk in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, according to KTLA. When they were just a block from the child’s house, a car ran a four-way stop sign, barreling towards Fox.

“It was going to be him hit since he was kind of more in front of me. So, as the car turned in – I was screaming, ‘Stop! Stop!’ – and pushed him as hard as I could to get him out of the way,” Maurer said in a video shared on a YouCaring page created by the boy’s parents this week to help raise money for their nanny’s recovery.

YOU CARING
“The car came and crushed my hands, the front bumper – and I was thrown a few feet, I don’t know,” Maurer continued, adding that the most heartbreaking part of the incident was that because of her injured hands, she wasn’t able to rescue Fox from his stroller.

Fortunately, her sacrifice kept Fox out of harm’s way. The toddler “miraculously escaped with only minor scrapes and bruises. One of the paramedics on the scene told me that Caroline had saved Fox’s life,” Courtney Davis and Bill Wolkoff — Fox’s parents — wrote on the YouCaring page.

“Caroline is a true hero, and we are forever grateful to her for saving our son’s life,” they said.
Maurer fractured the bones in her hands, wrists and arms during the incident and although she had multiple surgeries in late March, the doctors have said she may never regain full strength in her hands. She also struggles with dizziness and doctors are currently trying to figure out if she sustained any head trauma that might have been initially overlooked.

Since her injury, Maurer — who’s also a student — has been both unable to work and has had to put her studies on hold while she continues her recovery process. So far, the family has raised $23,462 of their $50,000 goal.

“As a mom, you give your kid to somebody else … your hope and your dream is that they’re going to treat your kid like their own,” Davis told KTLA. “I’m just so grateful to her.”
“I think my first reaction was: She’s family for the rest of our lives,” Wolkoff added. “Because of Caroline, the worst didn’t happen. She saved his life.”

When busy mom of four Erin Bennett went on a Target run on Wednesday, it started out like any other trip.

Viral: Stranger Buys Mom of 4 a Pumpkin Spice Candle at Target for the Sweetest Reason: ‘I Was Tearing Up’

Bennett, who lives in Bristow, Virginia, had her two youngest kids with her as she hurriedly filled her cart with groceries and other necessities. Along the way, she grabbed a pumpkin spice candle and some makeup for herself, but when she got to the checkout counter, she realized she was over her budget, so she asked the cashier if she could put the items back.

“I’ll always pass by the beauty section and grab something and hope that I budgeted and the coupons give me a little extra so I can buy what I wanted to get for myself,” Bennett, 29, tells PEOPLE. “But I usually end up putting it back.”

That’s when a kind stranger who was in line behind her quickly offered to buy the discarded items for her.
“We had been chatting in the line. I had told him I felt so bad he only had one item because I had a cart full of kids and groceries,” says Bennett, a registered nurse who has been a stay-at-home mom for the past few years. “But he didn’t mind.”

The man, whom Bennett describes as an older gentleman with grey hair and a grey beard, immediately told her that he wanted to buy the items for her.
“I said I couldn’t let him do that, but he insisted and said, ‘You deserve something for yourself.’ Then the cashier grabbed the items and let the man swipe his card before I could say no again,” she says.

As Bennett, whose kids range in age from 9 years old to 5 months old, turned to leave, she says she started tearing up and told the man: “I’m going to give you a squishy baby hug. Is that okay?”
“I had my baby strapped to my chest and I gave him a quick hug,” she adds.

What the stranger didn’t know was that Bennett has postpartum depression, and she uses scent as a way to boost her mood, so the pumpkin spice candle was extra special for her.
“I was diagnosed with postpartum when my second child was 7 months old,” she says. “My doctor mentioned making sure to take a little time for myself to do something nice for myself — like making sure I get my shower every evening, alone without a kid with me. And I like to use scent, I’m huge on scent, it totally boosts my mood.”

Later that evening, she told her husband Ernie about her experience and then took to Facebook to share the sweet story in hopes of finding the man to give him even more recognition.

“To the man in line behind me at the Gainesville Target, who saw that after hitting my grocery budget limit I decided to put back my Pumpkin Spice candle and the makeup I had picked out,” she wrote. “You didn’t know that I always save my stuff for last and usually end up putting it back. You didn’t know that the two fussy kids I had with me, were only two out of four. You didn’t know that I have postpartum depression from the youngest baby and that I use scent as a way to boost my mood.”

“You saw me as human, not just the mom in front of you that was distracted and going way too slow. You heard me to say that I’d like to put those items back and you said you were getting them. You didn’t take no for an answer,” she continued. “You told me I deserved it when I started to tear up.

“You Sir, are the good in the world. You made my day, probably my week, and I WILL pay it forward. Thank you so much for your kind heart and words.”
Bennett’s post has since gone viral, with almost 8,000 likes and 3,000 shares.

“I haven’t found him,” she tells PEOPLE. “He either doesn’t have social media or he’s actually an angel.”