While trying to save them, she began to struggle and was rescued by a neighbour.
“I tried to fight for my kids’ life, where I had to watch them struggle and drown and I couldn’t help them,” she said.
The neighbour, a football coach at the school the boys attended, heard her screams and was able to pull her out of the water.
“He said he heard the screaming or the call for help and came running. My friend had a horse rope, and he pulled me out with it,” Hangaman said.
In a statement, the local sheriff’s office said the two older boys were pulled out of the water first by emergency workers and a neighbour, and taken to a local hospital.
The six-year-old was later recovered after “an extensive search of the pond”, the office added.