CHATHAM, Ill. (AP) — A young mother who rescued a wheelchair-bound man from an oncoming train is getting hero’s treatment in her central Illinois hometown.
Ashley Aldridge was honored as a “Hometown Hero” with a supermarket shopping spree Monday in Chatham, just north of her Auburn home. The 19-year-old mother says she was grateful to be able to make her two children “real food and not macaroni and cheese.”
Last week, 75-year-old Earl Moorman’s motorized wheelchair got stuck on railroad tracks near Aldridge’s home. Aldridge heard him screaming and ran out the door as she heard a train horn.
She reached him just in time and carried him to safety. The wheelchair was destroyed.
Moorman calls Aldridge his “guardian angel.”
Before the rescue, someone broke into Aldridge’s home and stole money meant for bills. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Ashley and her family with finances. You can donate here.