COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho - A Coeur d’Alene single mom is now without a home after a car crashed into her apartment early Sunday morning, nearly killing her and her six-year-old son.
All that’s left from the crash is a boarded-up gap in the wall, debris and — thankfully — two lives.
“I could just smell exhaust and as the car was settling. I thought the roof was going to collapse so I just began frantically trying to find my son,” said Macaela Goolsby, tenant of the apartment.
Goolsby said she and her son were sleeping in the living room when the car plowed through the wall and pushed debris on top of them.
“I didn’t know what I was going to find. I didn’t know if he was going to be in there and gone, I didn’t know if his body was going to be there - I had no idea,” Goolsby said, referring to her son. “He wasn’t crying and he wasn’t screaming, and he just wasn’t there and it was just debris,” Goolsby said.
Seconds later, she found her six-year-old son in the rubble, which you can see in the photos above.
“The absolute horror because it was moments of not knowing if he was alive, not knowing if we were going to get out. I didn’t know what was happening,” Goolsby said.
Thankfully, she found her son, Om, uninjured.
“There was a corner shelf that he was clenching onto when I pulled him out of the rubble,” Goolsby said.
That shelf is possibly the only reason he’s still alive, according to Goolsby.
Luckily, he only received a few scratches and bruises. Macaela received a concussion, but now they’re without a home.
“We don’t know what the future is going to hold. We’re just trying to find housing and just get things back to somewhat normal,” Goolsby said. Finding an apartment is not easy, according to Goolsby.
She says the housing market is just too expensive for a single mom.
Her friend launched a GoFundMe page to help her find an apartment and replace some of the damaged household items. By Wednesday, it had raised more than $1,000.
“You don’t want to go through stuff like this and I never imagined I would be on the side of this but when you have so many people that have been just so wonderful, it feels really good to know that we’re not totally alone,” Goolsby said.
NonStop Local’s John Webb reached out to Coeur d’Alene Police today to see how the crash happened, but they didn't return the call before publication.
You can donate on the GoFundMe page.
