Runaway mom begs for kids' forgiveness on Dr. Phil

The Pennsylvania mother who reappeared last month after running away eleven years ago, leaving behind her husband and two children, said she never intended not to return to her family.

"I had asked for a raise at work and I didn't get that, and I got turned down for assistance housing and it was just too much," said Brenda Heist, in an emotional interview with television host Dr. Phil McGraw on Monday.

Heist, who was going through an amicable divorce with her husband at the time, said she was crying on a bench after dropping her children off at school when a group of homeless approached her. They told her they were hitchhiking to Florida.

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"It just seemed like the best thing to do at the time," said Heist.

Heist left with them. She never contacted her family again, leading them to believe she was dead, until April 26th when she walked into a police station in Key Largo, Florida.

"I was tired of running from my problems," said Heist. She said she tried to commit suicide three days before going to the police.

"Sometimes I wonder if it's a good thing if I turned myself in [but] I didn't want to be homeless anymore, I had nothing but the clothes on my back," said Heist.

Heist said she'll do whatever it takes to rekindle a relationship with her children.

"It would mean more than anything in the world to me to have their forgiveness," she said, "It didn't have anything to do with them at all, they were good kids."

However, Heist could not give an explanation as to why she decided to disappear from her former life.

"I don't know what happened, I just don't know," she said.