One Alabama woman said she is overwhelmed with gratitude after her mother survived a car crash and was found alive after being trapped in a car for five days.
"It is miraculous that she survived," 30-year-old Magen Heeder "Good Morning America" on Tuesday. "I didn't want to go through life without a mom."
The saga began when Robin Fancher took her boyfriend's car on April 17 to go to the post office in Headland, Alabama. But she never returned, Headland police said.
(MORE: Trapped for days beneath an overturned truck, missing Idaho man found alive)Police responded to a welfare check on Friday and Fancher's family reported her missing on Saturday, authorities said. Meanwhile, Heeder said community members came together to search.
"I had already prepared myself for the worst," Heeder said. "I was really scared that we were gonna find her dead."
"At that point I wasn't trying to say it to my little brother because there is a bond there between them," Heeder said. "They were connected."
Heeder said at that moment she realized she had been taking her mother for granted.
"I just wanted to hear my mom's voice," she said.
(MORE: Woman trapped in New York City elevator rescued after 3 days')It turned out Fancher had been in a car crash and survived.
Around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Fancher was found alive in the trapped car by a passerby near Dothan in southeast Alabama, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Fancher hadn't been easily visible from the roadway, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.
(MORE: Exclusive video goes inside daring underwater cave rescue of British diver in Tennessee)Heeder said she keeps thinking of how scared her mother must have been.
"Her will to live is very strong," Heeder said. "I hate that she had to go through that."
It's unclear how she survived for that length of time, an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency official told ABC News on Tuesday.
Fancher was taken to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center to be treated, said Headland police.
Heeder said her mother, who suffered injuries including a shattered hip and femur, will survive.
Heeder said her message to others is: "Don't take your family, especially your parents or your siblings, don't take them for granted."