BANGOR – Jeanette Graves of Dedham was thinking of only one thing Wednesday as she climbed out the passenger side window of her rolled-over Jeep and into a snowy ditch on Interstate 395 in Brewer.

It was her son, Micah. And he wasn’t even in the car.

Spc. Micah Haggerty-Graves, 27, of Bangor was at Bangor International Airport waiting to see his mom.

Just before the noon crash, Jeanette had received a phone call from her son, saying he would be at the airport for barely an hour with his Army National Guard unit before heading back to base in St. Louis, Wash.

Jeanette’s friend, who was greeting troops at BIA, saw Micah’s nametag and recognized his face from a picture posted at their church in Orrington. She hugged Micah, handed over her cell phone and told him to call his mother.

It was unexpected. He was supposed to come through Bangor six days later, returning from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Jeanette and her husband Ken, the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Orrington, had last seen their son in October when he was on leave in California. Through phone calls and e-mail, he had kept in touch regularly while at Camp Anaconda in Iraq, telling his parents stories of mortar attacks and dangerous missions.

He soon would be awarded a Bronze Star, Micah had told his mother, for killing some gunmen who shot a man in his unit. Micah held his fellow soldier in his arms as the man died from gunshot wounds.

Jeanette and Ken were in Ellsworth on Wednesday when they got the call from Micah. They abandoned a shopping trip at The Home Depot, jumped in their car and headed north.

Micah called again as the couple passed through Brewer. They would be just a few more minutes, his mother said – moments before the car spun out of control.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, the car is sliding. We’re going to get in an accident,” Micah heard his mother say before the phone went dead.

Micah was terrified.

The Jeep rolled twice and landed on its side in a ditch. Jeanette and her husband climbed out of the car, both with only minor injuries.

It would be only one of several lucky circumstances that day. More like miracles, according to Jeanette.

As several drivers stopped to check on them, Ken started asking if anyone was headed to Bangor and could take his crying wife to the airport to see her son.

One couple obliged and dropped Jeanette off at BIA minutes later.

“I don’t even know their names. They were the sweetest people,” Jeanette said Wednesday. “I was in tears.”

But Micah already had boarded his plane. He was the last one in his unit to walk back up the ramp, just after his mother called on her cell phone to say she was unhurt but probably wouldn’t make it on time.

Micah’s 17-year-old sister, Jessica Graves, did make it. BIA officials held the plane just long enough for her to say hello and give him a hug.

Jessica was just returning from the reunion when she saw her mother arrive at the airport.

It was too late, they thought.

But airport officials again held the plane and let the women back on board.

“We’re just so glad that we got to see him,” Jeanette said. “All the soldiers were cheering and clapping.”

Jeanette held her baby for about three minutes. Then it was time to go.

“We were both crying,” Jeanette said.

It’s a miracle her son was never hurt in Iraq, Jeanette said.

It’s a miracle her friend recognized Micah at the airport and gave him a cell phone so he wouldn’t have to wait in line to call his family, she said.

It’s a miracle she and her husband weren’t injured in the car accident.

It’s a miracle she and her daughter made it on time.

“We just really feel like it was a miracle from God,” Jeanette said.