I think that most of us would do anything that we could possibly do to help our children. We want them to be happy and healthy and at times, it means stepping outside of our comfort zone to do so.
That was exactly what a young mother name Shelby Carter did. It was on the day after her 21st birthday when she, unfortunately, died in a house fire. It was a house where she lived with her mother, daughter, and fiancé.
Shelby was on the second floor when the fire broke out. There was no way for her to get out of the room and she had her 12-day-old daughter, Keana Davis with her. That is when she made a decision that saved her daughter’s life.
She broke out the second-story window, strapped the baby into a car seat, and threw her onto a pile of debris outside. It was a moment in time that she obviously thought she was doing what she had to do and she managed to save her daughter’s life in the process.
Unfortunately, Shelby died in the fire and although her actions were heroic, they aren’t really sure why she didn’t follow her out of the window.
Carter was a recent graduate of high school, back in 2014. She was studying to be a pharmacy technician and they found her body on the second floor of the home, obviously overcome from smoke inhalation.
One of her childhood friends, Anna Steelman described her as being maternal and caring. She couldn’t believe when she heard about the fire.
Steelman said: “It was my day off and as I was on my way back to town after running errands. I could see smoke going up over Wyoming. We live in a rural community, so seeing smoke, I didn’t even consider it to be a house fire. Fires around here are usually created for a purpose – burning leaves, ditches, burn pile or bonfires. I remember thinking, ‘That’s a lot of smoke,’ but never did I think that it would be a house fire. That’s not something we see around here, especially one as tragic as this.”
She also was not surprised about her quick thinking, describing her as being task-oriented when she was growing up. She had a plan and she followed through with it.
Her uncle, Jesse Hardy will remember her as being a strong young woman that was quite mature for her age. He said: “I was actually living with my sister when Shelby was born so she has been a part of my life for a very long time. I know a lot of people are calling her a hero, but to those of us who knew her, she was just being Shelby. There are people in this world who are caretakers. That’s who she was.”