Randy Schaffer and his wife Mollie were in Hunt, Texas, for a reunion with law school friends when disaster struck.
HOUSTON — High-profile Houston attorney Randy Schaffer said his wife, Mollie, died in the Hill Country flood on the 4th of July.
The couple was in Hunt, Texas, for a reunion with law school friends. They were staying at the River Inn, on the banks of the Guadalupe River, when flash flooding overnight caught everyone off guard.
Schaffer said the weather was fine when they went to bed Thursday night.
“The manager banged on our door at 3:00 a.m. on Friday and said that we had to evacuate immediately because the river was about to overflow the banks,” Schaffer shared on Facebook. “I looked out the window and saw the river raging like Niagara Falls.
The manager advised them to drive to the top of the hill, according to Schaffer.
“That proved to be her death sentence. He should have unlocked a two-story building at the base of the parking lot and told the guests to go to the second floor,” Schaffer posted. “Ultimately, every other guest was spared when, minutes later, he unlocked that building, and they went to the second floor.”
They watched other vehicles turning around before they could reach the hill, and water quickly engulfed their car.
“The car started floating, hit a tree, and spun onto the road. We knew that we had to get out of the car.”
The car doors wouldn’t budge, so they both tried to go out the windows. Schaffer said he couldn’t get out the first time.
“I tried, but my seat was low, the window was high, and I fell back onto the seat. The last words she ever spoke were, ‘You have to push harder.’ I pushed as hard as I could and went out the window.”
The powerful current carried Schaffer underwater towards the river.
“I had no control of my body and figured this was the end.”
But before he was swept away, Schaffer was able to climb up a pole until his head was above water. He looked for Mollie and the car but couldn’t see either.
Schaffer said the water kept rising, so he climbed about six inches from the top of the pole and held on until it finally began to recede. It was still pitch black out, so he waited until the water got low enough to safely cross the road. Schaffer said he began looking for his wife, but there was no sign of her.
Searchers recovered Mollie’s body on Sunday, and her husbandwas able to identify a photo of her ring that night.
“Mollie died in a manner consistent with how she lived—selflessly taking care of someone else before she took care of herself. She wouldn’t leave the car until she was sure that I had done so,” Schaffer wrote. “She saved my life. It wasn’t my day to die. I wish that it hadn’t been her’s.”
The couple met in 1967, weeks after they graduated from high school, and they had been together ever since. They have two sons and several grandchildren.
Schaffer’s brother, Kent, who’s also a criminal defense attorney, shared a tribute to Mollie on Instagram.
“She was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. She never had an ugly thing to say about anyone. I don’t know how she made it in our family for 50+ years,” he wrote.
Schaffer said they’re hoping to have Mollie back in Houston in time to have her funeral on Sunday, July 13.