BETHEL, Ohio -- A day of fun at an Ohio amusement park turned deadly for an Ohio woman.

Video

Woman Dies On Roller Coaster

Karen Krekeler, a mother of four young children from Bethel, had been to Kings Island many times and never had any problems in the past, Cincinnati's WLWT reported exclusively Tuesday. And she'd never any heart problems in her past, but on Friday, while riding the roller coaster Top Gun, she suffered a heart attack and died.

Krekeler's family members said they'll always remember her the way she looked in their photo albums -- smiling and happy, Paolello reported. That fun-seeking habit is partly what drew her to Kings Island last week, when she and her 7-year-old son went there to celebrate his birthday, which turned out to be memorable for the wrong reason.

"My 7-year-old gave me a phone call on her phone," Krekeler's husband, Charles Krekeler, said. "He got her phone out and told me something was wrong, and that I needed to come up to Kings Island."

During the ride, Karen Krekeler suffered a heart attack.

"They said when the ride came to an end, she was just sitting there and her head went down a couple of times," Charles Krekeler said. "And then finally it went down and my 7-year-old was sitting next to her and he undid her seat belt, and said, 'Mommy, are you going to say thank you?' And that's when he started screaming."

Krekeler was unconscious and CPR wasn't working, Paolello reported. So emergency personnel rushed her to Bethesda North Hospital.

"I just assumed that we'd get there and she'd be in the emergency room and we'd go in and see her and she'd be out the next day," her sister, Leanna Welch, said.

But Krekeler never pulled through, so her family took her off life support the next day.

"It's emptiness and loneliness," Charles Krekeler said.

Added Welch: "It's very lonely, very empty. We all keep waiting for her to walk in."

Her 7-year-old still has many questions, Paolello reported. And her 3-month-old son will never know his mother first hand.

"They will know exactly who she was through her pictures, and through the memories that we had," Welch said.

Charles Krekeler told Paolello what he's been telling people who've offered their condolences over the last few, difficult days.

"I've told everybody not to take nothing for granted because you never know," he said. "They're there one day and there not there a second later."

Preliminary autopsy reports showed that Karen Krekeler's heart may have been enlarged and the excitement of the ride, coupled with high blood pressure, may have caused the heart attack. But more tests are being done, Paolello reported. Her funeral is Wednesday morning.