CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For Calallen High School mom Dana Merriman, missing her daughter’s high-school graduation wasn’t even an option.
"It was 9:40, and graduation was going to start, and we weren’t moving, so I told my husband – I’m going to walk,” she said. “I’m gonna walk."
In a TikTok video that has now garnered more than 16,000 views, Merriman can be seen hustling down Interstate 37 after being stuck in standstill traffic.
She’d decided she would walk to the graduation if she had to, but luckily for her, she didn’t have to.
Merriman said a first responder not only let her get in his unit, but he was also taking two Calallen grads with him.
Meanwhile, her daughter Isabella Klement, who was graduating No. 9 in her class, was with the other anxious grads awaiting the ceremony to begin at the American Bank Center.
"Everybody was stressing out,” she said. “They were like: Are we going to push this back? The admin said ‘Nope. There is a graduation after us, we have to go."
Isabella said that’s when her mom texted her she’d made it -- which didn’t surprise her at all.
"I knew my mom,” she said. “She was going to be there.”
She knew her mom would do whatever it took -- even if it took being escorted by a fire truck.
"I was like ‘There’s no doubt in my mind,” she said. “Of course, she did: She was going to be here."
Isabella, her mother, and the students who made it just in the nick of time were very thankful for saving their special day.