80-year-old grandmother sacrificed her own life to save a friend from a hit-and-run

On Wednesday evening in Davie, Florida, Emma Kelsoe was standing in the bike lane of a street in her neighborhood, walking her dog, a chihuahua named Rondo, and chatting with her neighbor, Victoria McCall.

Suddenly, a small car — dark blue or black, possibly a Toyota Carolla, according to witnesses — sped down the road erratically, heading straight toward the women, per Inside Edition. McCall, who is visually impaired, did not see the vehicle until Kelsoe, 80, yelled out “Car!” and shoved her out of the way, according to local media reports.

Instead, the car plowed straight into Kelsoe, who died at the scene, according to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel. Rondo, the dog, also died. The driver, meanwhile, hit another mailbox and kept driving.

"We are in shock, we miss her, everything about her," Kelsoe's granddaughter, Sara Riviera, told NBC 6.

“You don’t know what you took from us,” Rivera said of the driver to CBS 4. “And honestly, you will never know because you took away our family and the glue that held us together, and she’s gone now.”

McCall, 61, also suffered minor injuries but was released from the hospital the same night, per the Sun-Sentinel.

“She's in shock,” McCall’s niece, Kimberly McCall, said.

Police are still searching for the driver of the car that killed Kelsoe and her dog. Witnesses say they saw a passenger in the car as well, per WDHD, and surveillance footage from nearby houses appears to confirm that there were at least two people in the car, per CBS 4.

According to NBC 6, the neighborhood where the crash took place has very few traffic signals and stop signs and is often used as a cut-through by many drivers.

“I walk my dogs every day, all the time, and the street, the main street here, there is only one stop sign in one direction so they fly through at 60 miles an hour sometimes. Quite often actually,” resident Grace Bellingham told the station.

Kelsoe is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.

“She was a beautiful soul. She was always the one who would just have no problem putting herself in a horrible situation as long as it saved someone else,” Riviera told WDHD.

As for McCall, her family expressed gratitude and sympathy for Kelsoe’s heroic act.

“A woman died and my heart just breaks for their family. I know what they are going through and I know the pain that they are feeling,” Kimberly McCall told CBS 4. “I’ve never met that woman but I wish I would have because she most likely saved my aunt’s life. I am forever indebted to this woman.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2017 at 3:36 PM with the headline "80-year-old grandmother sacrificed her own life to save a friend from a hit-and-run."