A grandmother who left her home on Christmas Eve has been found dead hundreds of feet away amid the winter storm that hit Buffalo.
At the time of writing, 37 people have tragically lost their lives due to the winter storm that hit Canada and the northeastern US over the Christmas weekend, per People.
Monique Alexander, 52, was one of the people who tragically did not survive the extreme weather conditions after leaving her home during the storm.
Her daughter Casey Maccarone spoke to CNN about her anxiety about the severe weather conditions that were hitting her hometown, as stores were closing due to fear of getting stranded at work.
Alexander had left the residence that she shared with her daughter, declaring that she would be right back without informing anybody where she was going.
Her daughter assumed she was attempting to get to the stores one last time before Christmas in case they shut their doors due to the weather.
Alexander was gone for a while, and Maccarone became concerned for her mother's safety. "We were waiting for her to come home. I knew something was wrong right away though, so I kind of accepted it instantly," she explained.
"It’s hard knowing that she was outside for so long, too, because there were no emergency responders allowed to come outside."
Maccarone explained that her mother had experienced storms before and that she was a "superwoman" and "invincible". "I’m assuming that she just thought she could handle the conditions," she said.
Alexander left the house around 3:00 PM on Christmas Eve and after a few hours had passed, Maccarone posted on Facebook asking if anybody had seen her.
Shortly after, she received a message from a stranger who described the clothes that her mother was wearing that day and asked if she could video call him.
When the two eventually connected, the man broke down in tears as he explained that he got stranded and that's when he found Alexander's body.
He explained that he moved her body under the awning of a nearby business so that she didn't get completely buried in the snow, which in some areas reached over 50 inches deep. The National Guard was then on hand to retrieve her body.
"My kids they lost their grandmother, and that was the most important role in her life… being a good grandmother," Maccarone explained to CNN. "Now they just have memories."
Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy.
.jpg_yBFfID?tr=h-184)
