Me Green Me

An Idaho grandmother captured a deeply touching moment as she took a photo of her three-year-old granddaughter, Scarlett, just moments before a tragic event changed their lives forever.

Back in 2022, Samantha Jensen’s mother, Jamie, was caring for her granddaughter Scarlett and grandson Henry, who was two years old at the time, when the unthinkable happened.

Now, two years later, Samantha bravely decided it was time to share the poignant last photo of her children enjoying each other’s company just before Scarlett’s untimely death.

In a heartfelt TikTok post, Samantha wrote, “My mom took this picture at 4:47 PM, and my daughter’s time of death was 4:52. My mom didn’t know she was capturing the last moments of her life.”

Reflecting on the timeline, she noted, “I looked at the timestamp and realized it was only five minutes before her declared time of death, so it must have been taken seconds before the driver hit them. This one is really hard for me to look at, just knowing what comes next breaks my heart.”

Jamie had just arrived home after treating the children to some ice cream when Scarlett asked if she could get out of her stroller to pick some flowers. “That’s when my mom took the last picture I have of her alive,” shared Samantha.

Gathering yellow and purple blooms in their private driveway, Scarlett was unaware of the oncoming danger as a speeding Chevy Tahoe barreled down the dirt road, striking her, her brother, and their grandmother.

Before the collision, Jamie yelled at the driver to stop and tried to shield the children, but the vehicle was moving “too fast.” Samantha recounted, “Scarlett was killed almost instantly, and my mom and Henry were critically injured.”

Weeks later, the grieving mother discovered her mom had taken a photo of Scarlett’s last moments. “My mom lost her phone when they were hit, and it took us a while to find it. When we finally did, I was going through the pictures and found that one,” Samantha explained.

Initially, the image was an unbearable sight for Samantha. “It was extremely painful for me to look at in the beginning. How do you come to terms with the existence of a ‘last picture’ of your child?”

After two years, Samantha found comfort in the serenity of the captured moment and decided to share it on TikTok, where she received an outpouring of support from strangers.

“I am so incredibly thankful to have that photo,” Samantha expressed. “It captures the peaceful feeling of her last moments, the beauty surrounding her when she took her last breaths. I will forever picture her happy and carefree, picking flowers with her best friend and Meemaw.”

Following the incident, Henry was urgently flown to a children’s hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with “a fractured spine, six broken ribs, a broken jaw, a broken collarbone, a liver laceration, and several other injuries.” Samantha explained that the toddler “spent a week in the PICU before he was stable enough to come home, and he had a full body brace on for 10 weeks.”

Both Henry and Jamie eventually healed from their physical injuries, but the emotional scars remain profound. Scarlett, born on New Year’s Day in 2019, was Samantha and her husband’s “long-awaited first child.” Her grandfather, Jim Patton, described Scarlett as “so full of life, so full of love… such a smart little girl.”

“A piece of my soul is gone,” he added. Samantha remembered her daughter as “the silliest, sweetest little girl,” who adored horses, unicorns, being a big sister, and the movies Frozen and Spirit. “The absolute joy of her life were her siblings. She loved helping take care of baby Molly and playing with her best friend Henry.”

Without Scarlett’s lively presence, “the house feels so quiet and empty without her,” Samantha lamented.

The family continues to grapple with the actions of the driver, who fled on foot from the scene but was apprehended miles away. “How do you do that? How do you walk away from suffering?” Jim Patton pondered. Samantha revealed that the driver is now serving a ten-year prison sentence, with two years credited for time already served during the legal proceedings.

Samantha’s grief is a constant companion. “Some days, it feels like I am drowning, and some days I am able to tread water,” she admitted.

Through sharing her story on social media, Samantha aims to encourage others by showing that “it is okay to grieve loudly.” She urges, “You don’t have to do it in silence. Talk about your people, scream their names loud and proud, and never stop sharing their stories.”

Heartbreaking.