A Mother's Selfless Rescue

Police don't know where Deborah Kemp found the strength.  But Kemp knows.  Six-year-old daughter Ashleye was in the backseat, and Kemp wasn't going to let the man steal her car after she pumped gas.  The thirty-four-year-old mother was dragged on her knees for several blocks as she clung to the door and steering wheel of the moving car.

"I wasn't trying to be a hero," she said.  "I was concerned about my baby... there was part of me in that car."  Kemp eventually pulled the suspect from the car and beat him with an anti theft club device while he apologized and begged her to stop.

The driverless car went out of control and smashed into a restaurant, breaking a gas line.  That's when the child woke up.  Kemp suffered only ripped pants and bloody knees.  The child was not injured.  The suspect can't walk: One leg is broken, the other fractured.  He also suffered head injuries.

- from an Atlanta newspaper, December 1994, submitted by Rose Hodgin to Parables, Etc. (July 1995)