A Texas man is paying it forward to help a stranger who rescued him three months ago after a tree fell and crushed his SUV.
“We often hear, ‘right place, right time’ (or in my case ‘wrong place, wrong time’),” survivor Bryan Pederson, of Tomball, tells PEOPLE on Friday, Aug, 23, “but there are too many coincidences for any of this to be coincidental.”
Pederson was waiting for the light to change while heading home during a storm on May 16 when a big oak tree toppled onto his SUV, crushing them both, CBS affiliate KHOUreported.
Afterwards, he recalled that there were 10 other cars that came upon the scene, but they all drove away. However, one of the drivers who did help was Veronica Marin, a single working mother, per the outlet. She was with her three kids in her car when she witnessed the tree falling and got out to help Pederson.
“I see the tree fall on the truck,” Marin told KHOU in Spanish. “What impacts me is all the cars turned around, and in front of me, I don’t know, without thinking, my mother instincts.”
As Pederson later wrote in a GoFundMe, which he started to help the single mom after realizing that she too needed help, after the tree fell, he was panicking and struggling to breathe as the SUV’s roof pressed against him. He tells PEOPLE that his wife was on the phone with him during the ordeal “and encouraged me to find a way to breathe, while I thought it was the end.”
Pederson added that Marin and Travis Lennon, the other good Samaritan, pried the passenger door open. Marin was then able to get into the vehicle and unfastened Pederson’s seatbelt.
“She grabbed my arms and just kept pulling, encouraging me the entire time to get out,” Pederson wrote. “I twisted, and maneuvered, with her helping and guiding me. I got to a position where she and Travis were able to pull me out from the vehicle.”
A shocked Pederson sat in Lennon’s truck while waiting for first responders to arrive. Meanwhile, Marin returned to her car where her kids were inside and drove away before Pederson could get her contact information.
Pederson said that he was able to walk away from the incident with only a sore back.
Wanting to express his gratitude, Pederson later found Marin via Facebook. “I was emotional, and kept playing through my head, how do you thank someone who literally saved your life?” he told KHOU.
The two reunited at a fire station where Pederson thanked Marin. He later learned that the single mom of 3 has chronic back pain, works a full-time job and is “having trouble making ends meet to make payments on her home, and car, and childcare while she works as many hours as she can to provide a better life for her kids.”
After visiting her home, he also saw that it was “in dire need of repairs.”
“Many people in the community are amazed at her bravery and selfless act and asked how they could help,” he wrote. “Please consider donating to help us raise money to make the proper repairs to her home, and if anything is left over we will give to Veronica to help support her family.”
As of publication, the fundraiser has raised over $12,000.
Pederson has been effusive in his praise of Marin. “I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of Veronica’s story and would love to help change her life for the better,” he tells PEOPLE. “She is an amazing human being for what she did for me.”
He also calls Marin “a hero that is so incredibly humble and God-fearing, and not want anything in return, except the well-being of a complete stranger.”
“I am so grateful for all of these things happening,” Pederson continues. “Not because I’m ‘lucky,’ but because I’m witnessing a much bigger plan unfold right in front of me, and I’m blessed to be a part of it.”
