Teenager lifts 4-wheeler to save grandmother

By Doug Warner, NEWS 9

Rhonda Godwin swears she's not going to sit in her recliner for the rest of her life.

The 61-year-old grandmother loves hopping on her four-wheeler to explore her rural Pottawattamie County farm. It's a hobby she couldn't enjoy if it wasn't for the quick action of her grandson and Oklahoma Hero nominee, Kyle Lemmings.

In 2006, Kyle visited his grandmother a few days before his 12^th birthday so he could hit the trails with his grandmother.

When the duo stopped to look at a beaver dam, Godwin's four-wheeler began to roll down the fill. She hit a poll sticking out of the leaves. She flew off the vehicle and landed face-down in the pond with the 750-pound four-wheeler on top of her.

"All I could remember, scrambling, digging in the mud, trying to get out," she said. "I knew I was going to drown."

Somehow, 12-year-old Kyle manged to lift the four-wheeler enough to free his grandmother.

"It was a miracle; it really was," Godwin said. "It was just a miracle."

It's a feat that still amazes Kyle's father who had to use a truck to pull the four-wheeler from the pond.

Godwin suffered a broken wrist and collarbone.  Four days after the accident, on Christmas Day, Godwin put things in perspective for the family.

"We would be having my funeral, mourning me today, because I would have drowned," she said. "He's just a hero. He'll always be my hero."