An elderly woman from Belmont County is lucky to be alive after crashing her van into a pond Friday night, at the start of the weekend’s winter storm.

Margaret Wiseman said she was only on the road during Friday’s snowstorm, because when she came home from work that evening she didn’t have any heat at her house, which is near Morristown, and wanted to go to her daughter’s house in Wheeling to keep warm.

During a bedside interview in her Barnesville Hospital room Saturday evening, Wiseman told NEWS9’s Maggie Ruper that “Route 40 was not that bad when I came home and it wasn’t that bad when I went out, but the snow was blowing in my face and I missed the exit at 149 to get on Interstate 70.”

The 82-year-old said she kept going westbound on US 40 when another car traveling east almost ran her off the road near Lady Bend Hill. She then began to head to, what would later turn out to be, a pond.

“I tapped my brakes a little, but that wasn’t successful,” she said.

Wiseman’s van went into the pond, with the front end submerged, around 8:30 p.m. With no way of knowing how to get out, she made what would be her lifesaving decision, crawled to the back. She said she then covered herself with an afghan. As time passed and no one came to help, Wiseman tried to go to sleep. She said she did end up dozing off.

“The first thing I said this morning was dear God, don’t let me die here,” said Wiseman.

Her lifesaver would come about 16 hours after she crashed. On Saturday, a driver noticed the vehicle stuck and called 911. Emergency crews were able to rescue her around 1 p.m. She was immediately taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.

Wiseman is expected to fully recover from the ordeal.

“All that I can tell you is that it’s a miracle,” said Barnesville Hospital nurse Denise Riley.