Three young brothers have died in Bonham, north Texas, after falling through ice on a private pond on Monday.
Cheyenne Hangaman, the boys' mother, said she tried to rescue them by lifting them out of the water and placing them on the ice, but it kept breaking.
"There was three of them and only one of me... that's why I couldn't save them," she told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.
She described her sons, aged six, eight and nine, as full of personality and urged families to "make sure that you hold your kids tight, always tell them that you love them".
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