When the phone rang around 2:00 a.m. on Mother’s Day, Beatrice Cepele only captured a few words as her husband spoke to the couple’s 19-year-old son, Ray.

Highway. Accident. Fire. Home.

A naturally nervous mom, Beatrice Cepele said a strange calm overcame her amid moments filled with so much uncertainty, so many questions.

“Not knowing any of the specifics, you have to put your trust in someone and, for me, that’s God,” she said.

And, fortunately, God delivered a memorable Mother’s Day gift for Beatrice Cepele in 2015.

While traveling home from Wheaton to southwest suburban Lemont with friend Rimas Barsketis following a Lithuanian folk dancing festival and afterparty, Ray Cepele and Barsketis merged onto I-355 South in DuPage County. Immediately, the pair was startled by what they saw on the highway’s left shoulder: a car shooting flames.

Barsketis, the driver, pulled to the right shoulder as Cepele phoned 911. As the friends exited their car, they spotted a man’s profile inside the burning car. They shouted at the man in an attempt to gain his attention, but the man did not move.

It was clear this guy needed our help,” Ray Cepele said.

Over 10-15 seconds, the friends discussed what they might do, especially as the fire intensified and help had yet to arrive.

“The thought of the car blowing up crossed our minds,” Ray Cepele admitted, “but if I was in that man’s position, I know I would want someone to help me.”

As Barsketis and Cepele continued inching closer to the burning vehicle, the man opened his door and stumbled forward. Barsketis and Cepele rushed toward him, carrying him away from the blazing car and toward safety.

“We both just wanted the guy to be safe,” Ray Cepele said.

Within minutes, first responders arrived and Ray Cepele phoned home, awaking his parents with news of the accident, but quickly assuring them of his safety. By that time, flames had consumed the car.

“If we didn’t get that man to safety, it wouldn’t have been a good ending,” Ray Cepele said.

On June 5, the closing prayer service for the school year at Ss. Cyril and Methodius, the school community honored 2009 alum Ray Cepele for his heroic act.

“He is a role model for what we should do as Catholics,” said Ss. Cyril and Methodius principal Shirley Tkachuk, who has known Ray and the Cepele family for more than a decade.

Tkachuk hoped the school’s current students found inspiration and motivation in Cepele’s story and a reminder that they, too, might someday be called upon to act in a selfless, if not heroic manner.

“Ray’s story is an important one for our students to hear,” Tkachuk said. “Here is someone who sat in their seat and who helped someone else at their moment of greatest need. It’s important for our students to know that they have to consider other people and think beyond themselves.”

Though a modest Ray Cepele downplayed the recognition he has received, which included coverage of the act by numerous Chicago area media outlets, he did embrace the opportunity to visit his old school and see former teachers.

“It was a fun experience,” he said.

Reflecting on that Mother’s Day morning now, a calm June day in the comforts of his Lemont home, Ray Cepele said his experience on I-355 was “an extreme moment” he never imagined he would encounter.

“The thought that I’d ever have to do something like this never once crossed my mind,” Ray Cepele said.

Both Barsketis and Cepele emerged unscathed while the man, in his 30s, was unharmed. He was later charged, however, with driving under the influence.

“A truck driver later told us that the man was going about 100 miles per hour on the highway,” Ray Cepele said.

Those disheartening facts notwithstanding, Ray Cepele said he would do the same thing again if confronted with a similar situation.

“When you’re called to act, to help people in need, you need to do it,” the current North Central College accounting student said.

Cepele’s mother, meanwhile, stands proud of her son’s selfless act, though understandably pleased her only child was not injured in his rush to help.

“God’s hand was on everyone that night,” Beatrice Cepele said, “and, hopefully, this is not the last time [Ray] does something so courageous and kind.”