A woman shared a photo capturing the final moments of her granddaughter’s life shortly before the tragic death of the three-year-old girl. According to shocking reports, Scarlett Jensen passed away on October 7, 2022, after being struck by a car.
She and her two-year-old brother, Henry, were under the care of their grandmother while their mother, Samantha Jensen, and their father had left town for a wedding. But as the three of them were walking on the family’s private road in Oldtown, Idaho, the unimaginable happened.
“My mother was waving her arms, yelling at him to stop, and trying to get my children off the road, but he was driving too fast,” recalled Samantha Jensen. “Scarlett died almost immediately, and my mother and Henry were seriously injured.”
The suspect, who was driving a Chevrolet, fled the scene on foot but was arrested several miles away.
Henry was airlifted to a children’s hospital, where he was diagnosed with a spinal fracture, six broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone, a ruptured liver, and several other injuries,” Samantha told PEOPLE. “My mother suffered multiple fractures but was able to be discharged from the hospital.”
She added, “Henry was in intensive care for a week before his condition was stable enough for him to go home. He had to wear a full-body brace for ten weeks.”
In the weeks that followed, the family was overwhelmed with grief. But then came a small moment—Samantha found a seemingly innocent photo of Scarlett that her mother had taken shortly before her death.
My mother had lost her cellphone when they were struck, and it took us some time to find it. When we finally recovered it, I looked through the photos and found this one,” Jensen explained. “I checked the timestamp and realized it was just five minutes before the official time of death. So, the photo was taken just seconds before the impact.
According to PEOPLE, the photo was taken when Scarlett’s grandmother took her grandchildren out for ice cream. “When they got back, Scarlett wanted to get out of the stroller to pick some flowers,” Samantha explained. “That’s when my mother took the last photo of her alive.
The grieving mother explained that her days have been different ever since. Some are naturally harder than others, but the family is doing its best to cope with the pain.
“Some days, I feel like I’m drowning; other days, I manage to stay afloat,” she told PEOPLE. “My whole family is in therapy and trying to heal as best as we can. My faith in God has saved my life and helped me tremendously on this journey of healing.”
At first, the heartbroken mother struggled to look at the last photo of her daughter. But two years after her passing, Samantha realized that the picture was a testament to Scarlett’s beautiful life.
“I am incredibly grateful for this photo,” she told PEOPLE. “It captures the peace of her final moments, the beauty surrounding her as she took her last breath. I have preserved her forever—happy and carefree, picking flowers with her best friend, her mother.
