In a dreadful, unimaginable accident, a fun family getaway suddenly turned tragic for an elderly man. He lost his life when a rock came crashing through the roof of a Jeep he was in on July 11 at Glacier National Park in Montana.
Videos by Wide Open Country
According to the Flathead Beacon, Rex Schowengerdt, 73, of Missouri, died July 16 from injuries sustained when a rock fell through the roof of the fiberglass-top Jeep he was riding in...." His injuries included "brain herniation, intracranial hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury." Schowengerdt sadly passed away a few days afterward.
"It Was a Freak, Horrible Thing"
Amy Prince is the daughter of Rex Schowengerdt. Her mom, Chris, was seated in the Jeep's back seat when the rock plunged through its roof. She and Rex were married for 50 years. "'It wasn't even that big of a rock,' Prince said her mother told her. 'She said she saw two pebbles fall, and then it just came through the roof.'"
Schowengerdt's brother-in-law owns the vehicle. He was doing the driving that day.
Prince summed up the tragedy that took her father this way. "There's nothing that could have stopped that rock from falling. It was a freak, horrible thing."
Even more heartbreaking and ironic is how excited Rex Schowengerdt was to go on that trip. Said Amy Prince, "Dad was so excited to go back there — even weeks before they were scheduled to go, he was jumping around. He loved that place."
Schowengerdt Was So Deeply Loved by His Family
It sounds like this man was the glue that held his family together, the optimistic go-to guy in times of joy and of challenge. His daughter reminisced about him with immense fondness. "I would almost say he was my spiritual pillar. He would always be the one to tell me it was going to be OK, to help me believe that when the world is falling apart, it was going to be OK. So now that our world is falling apart, I have to believe that everything is going to be OK."
A GoFundMe was set up by Amy Prince to help her mom with expenses. Almost $6,000 has been raised of a goal of $7,500.
