thinking about 12/16/2000
Tuscaloosa and our community was swept away by a deadly and devastating F-4 TORNADO. I had been laying in bed sick for 2 days and finally mustered up the strength to get up to drive myself to the doc in a box. I had pneumonia and bronchitis and they'd given me 2 shots. I didn't wait in the waiting room like I was asked cause I'd already been there for hours. Holly was with me and as we left the clinic, I stopped by the McDonald's to get her a hamburger cause I hadn't even fed my poor child. Of course she was old enough to fix herself something but she was hungry. They refused to serve us in the drive-thru and told us a tornado was coming....we pulled out of MD's and got up the road enough to see something was coming at us. I pulled over under a bridge and Kyle who had been painting had come to check on me, was ahead of us. He'd pulled over just ahead of us. We didn't have cell phones back then, so no way to call each other. When we finally got to our road we lived on, we were stopped.....we could go no further, everyone's homes were destroyed, including ours......there were 11 deaths in our little community we lived in, 2 of which were good friends. There were people running around everywhere screaming, crying and begging for help. I have never in my life seen such devastation in my entire life and I never want to see it again. I keep thinking over and over in my head.....if we had only been 3 minutes ahead, we'd been hit smack dab in the middle of that tornado. Thank the good Lord for His perfect timing in saving our lives. We got a brand new mobile home, only to have a house fire in it 11 months after we'd moved into it. The ins. said it was bad wiring in a dryer someone had given us after the tornado. 14 months later, it burned to the ground. Insurance Co. said it was power surge where our bathroom where my hair dryer was plugged in. We were certain there was just bad wiring in the mobile home itself but Ins. didn't even bother to investigate. Thankfully, insurance paid off and we were able to start all over again. We are just very grateful for God's grace and abundance of love thru our tragedies. For today, we have a beautiful home and we live right across the street from my Dad and are able to help him now that my Mama is gone. It's just been a sad day today. One of my Dad's best friends and a close friend of the family, died today from cancer. Last week he was walking and talking and didn't even know anything was wrong with him. He'd lost a bit of weight and didn't feel very well, so he finally went to the dr. they sent him to the hospital for testing on Thursday, a week ago today. On Friday, he was told he was eat up with cancer and even had it in his brain. Yesterday, he died. It's been such a sorrowful day for me and our family. It's been through these tragedies that we have grown and matured and learned to cherish each day to it's fullest. Thankful that God has become the center of our home together, the Head of our household. For with Him, we can do all things. God is LOVE.
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