SAD STORY: Mother dies shielding son from falling tree in Smoky Mountains. “A pediatrician and mother of three was killed while shielding her 3-year-old son from a falling tree last week while hiking in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountain National Park, officials said. Laila Jiwani, a 42-year-old doctor at Cook Children’s Northside Neighborhood Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, died Thursday after being struck by the tree that was knocked down due to high winds along the Porter Creek Trail inside the 800-square-mile park as she walked with her husband and three children.”

A friend of mine was hiking the same day and said a tree fell across the trail just a dozen or so steps ahead of her, making her glad she wasn’t faster.