Blown Away!

The Awakening

I opened my eyes and saw jagged tree trunks against a blue sky. I just stared at what I saw and tried to understand what was happening, but I couldn’t. I tried to move, but I couldn’t. All was quiet. I thought maybe this was just a dream, but then I caught a glimpse of my arm covered in mud, and I knew it wasn’t just a dream. “No one gets this dirty in a dream,” I thought to myself, but I still didn’t know what was happening.

“Eddie?” I called with all the strength I could muster, though it came out as a whisper.

“Yea,” he responded.

“Is this a dream?” I asked.

“I wish it was,” was his reply. Still not understanding what was happening or what had happened, I heard the faint whimper of our little boy right behind me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We got hit,” he answered through his groans as he struggled to his knees. As he looked out across what moments ago had been our home he said, “It’s gone. Everything is gone.”

With his words, “We got hit,” I then remembered that we had been under our bed, all three of us, as the tornado approached. I remembered hearing it hit. I remembered the house rolling. I remembered something pushing my legs fully under the bed and forcing me into a fetal position. I remembered something crushing me. And I remembered blacking out.

As I lay there digesting what had happened, I wondered if my sister and Daddy had gotten hit as well. I wondered about Eddie’s mother who lives right next door to my Dad. I wondered about my animals - my cats, Elvis and Tabitha, who were in the house with us, and my three dogs that lived in a large fenced area in our back yard. “Why don’t I hear the dogs?” I thought to myself. “Why aren’t they running around?” All was so quiet.

“I can’t move, Eddie. Eddie I can‘t move.”

“Hang on. There is a 2 x 12 across you...“

“Is Eli okay?” I asked him. Struggling to reach me he said, “I see him. He’s alive. That’s all I know.”

With all the strength he had, Eddie groaned and pushed the board off of me. “I’m hurt,” he said. “My shoulder is broken.”

“I still can’t move, Eddie!” Panic was starting to set in as I realized what had happened and that I could not move anything but my eyes. I don’t remember what happened next. I must have blacked out again.

We lived next door to a family with three boys. The youngest, Christian, came running over and asked if we were okay. I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of him. Eddie answered him, though I don’t remember exactly what he said.

“Are ya’ll okay?” Eddie asked Christian.

“Yea. One of my brothers is trapped, but he’s okay,” then off he ran.

A short time later I heard Christian’s mom yell, “There’s Kelly. There’s my neighbor!” I opened my eyes and saw her standing there pointing at me, but I didn’t know who she was talking to. I was out again.

I don’t know how much time passed before the sound of voices woke me. I wasn’t awake enough to open my eyes, but I heard a man say, “I don’t know who they are. I just moved here.” Then I was out again.

The next thing I remember is very emotional to me. Our neighbor who lived at the end of the street is a paramedic and fireman, and our families would visit with each other from time to time. I heard Eddie call his name, and I opened my eyes. There was Matt standing a few yards away looking down at me. He was dressed in his fireman’s uniform and looked to me like a superhero. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so relieved to see anyone. “Matt, help me,” I said. “I can’t move.”

“We’re gonna help you, Kelly. You’re gonna be okay.”

“Are you gonna put me on a door and carry me?” I asked him. Lying there on the ground I remembered hearing how rescuers used doors to carry people after a very large tornado hit down the road from us in 1998.

“That’s a good idea,” he said, or at least I think he said that. My mind was growing foggier by the minute, and I struggled to even open my eyes. I don’t remember much about being placed on a door, but I remember groaning in intense pain.

“Kelly! Kelly!” It was Matt’s wife, Rebecca. I opened my eyes.

“They took Eli in an ambulance to the hospital. I didn’t want you to worry about him.” I don’t remember if I even responded, but I was so grateful that Eli was being cared for.

I remember being put in the back of a pickup truck and being carried, bouncing down the hill, to Steve’s Grocery, a local convenience store, where the ambulance was waiting. The paramedic immediately started cutting my left pant leg. “We are taking her to UAB,” I heard the paramedic say on the radio, and I was out again.