"I feared we'd both drown! but I couldn't give up!"

When Dusti Talavera glanced out her window and spotted the pond ice break under three children, she dashed out to help, determined to save them, even after plummeting into the icy water herself!

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Wait up!” 6-year-old Zakiyah Williams called, running to catch up to two new friends she’d made while playing outside a Denver-area babysitter’s apartment building with her big sisters and cousins. The ground was white with snow, and as Zakiyah chased after the boys, she didn’t realize they’d run onto the frozen pond.

Just then, Dusti Talavera happened to glance out her apartment window. “Those kids shouldn’t be on the ice— it’s been too warm lately,” she told her husband, Lekan. And then, “Dear God!” she cried as the ice cracked open and all three children plunged into the frigid water!

“Call 911!” Dusti shouted and raced to the pond where the two boys were clinging to the jagged edge of ice.