When 78-year-old Ruth Hagan visited her daughter Judy and granddaughter Marcy in California, they drove their Bronco forty zigzagging miles up a treacherous mountain road to their remote cabin.
After dinner, teenage Marcy took the Bronco down the narrow cliffside road to fetch water. Watching from the window, Judy suddenly screamed: Marcy had driven over the edge. Judy sprinted from the cabin, with Ruth struggling to follow in the fading dusk.
Ruth soon lost sight of her daughter. She stopped, calling out into the darkness. Judy's voice answered from just off the path—she too had slipped over the cliff edge while searching for Marcy. Judy urged her mother to return to the cabin and call for a helicopter rescue.
Exhausted and in chest pain, Ruth stumbled on the return journey. Desperate, she prayed for help. Suddenly, a powerful surge of energy filled her. She ran back to the cabin with renewed strength and dialed 911, but couldn't explain their location.
Ruth grabbed a walking stick and raced back into the darkness to find Judy. Using the stick, she managed to pull her injured daughter back up the cliff. Together, they returned to the cabin, contacted rescuers, and guided them to the site.
After a 3.5-hour operation, Marcy was freed from the wreckage at the bottom of the ravine and airlifted to the hospital with serious injuries. The next day, the sheriff told Marcy, "That mountain didn't beat you."
Ruth knew they had not been beaten. That night, a guiding presence had breathed strength into her frail body, protecting them all.