May 20th started off as a pretty normal day. I dropped Brody off at school and then headed to Norman to drop Meg off at school. Then I went back to Brody's school for his end of the year awards ceremony. After waiting through the 2nd and 3rd graders it was finally time for the 1st grade awards. I felt so bad for those kids having to sit for so long until it was finally their time.
I was so proud of Brody for getting his AR (accelerated reader) medal and we both were surprised when he also received a citizenship medal. He was very excited!!!!
I was able to snap a quick picture of him and his sweet teacher, Mrs. McMurtry. What a blessing she has been to him! She has taught him so much and he has had a great year. Little did we know that this would end up being his last day of school for the year.
Brody was hoping I would check him out early but since it was just 10:30 I told him that he had to stay at school. But I did tell him that if for some reason the weather got bad (which the meteorologists had been predicting) that I would pick him up early. I made it to pick Meg up by noon and Teacher Pam reminded me to watch the weather and to be safe. By this time you could just tell that it was going to storm. There was something about how it felt outside and how the sky looked. I continued to keep an eye on my phone and watched weather reports from the National Weather Service. They posted something that seemed pretty serious that made me wonder if maybe I should pick Brody up since the storms were supposed to hit at 3:00. I texted another mom to see what her plan was and she said she planned to get her son at 2:00. But I still wasn't sure what to do. We have so many days where tornados are predicted and nothing ever happens. Meg and I came home and ate lunch and she got busy playing games on the computer while I watched the weather. I also took a little time to get a "go" bag together with some electronics the kids could play if we had to go to our neighbor's shelter, some food, and water. I also put some of the things that mean the most to us in our safe that is bolted to the ground in our garage. Around 2:15 there was a storm forming down southwest of us. They put up the little square that showed the direction that it was headed and it was headed straight to Moore. It was at this time that I quickly grabbed Meg and we sped up to the school to pick Brody up. There were a number of other people doing the same thing. By the time we got to the car the winds had picked up and it started to rain. We got home and I watched the weather some more. It started to hail a little and then the tornado sirens started going off around 2:40. Since it was hailing I decided not to go to the house we normally go to and instead ran across the street (with the kids sporting their football helmets) to the house where two sweet elderly sisters live. They had reminded me numerous times that they always leave their garage door open on bad weather days and that we were always welcome. We ended up with 6 adults, 3 kids, and 2 dogs in their garage cellar that afternoon. Our phones weren't getting good reception so we really didn't have much information. One call did come through and it was Rob checking on us. I knew if Rob (who to me doesn't ever seem to get worried about too much) was calling to make sure we were in a safe spot because the tornado was headed straight for us. Bryson was in Tulsa that day and Rob was able to communicate with him where we were. I really doubt that Bryson was worried though. He knows I don't mess around when it comes to tornados. One of the guys did continue to watch the news right up until a few minutes before the tornado hit and when he finally got in he said I think its coming straight for us and it looks big. You could hear it when it went by us. It sounded like a train. We could hear the debris hitting the garage doors and you could feel the vibration. The ladies were a singing their church songs and we were all saying our prayers. The kids were amazingly calm despite saying every so often they were scared. Honestly I was too. Once we felt it was safe the two men checked to make sure it was safe for us to come out. I fully expected our house to be damaged but was pleasantly surprised that all there was was a lot of debris. But I knew with that much debris that wherever it hit, it had to have been bad. From the moment we got out all you could hear were helicopters and sirens. Then there was smoke and the smell of fire. Just a few minutes after that my phone started to blow up with all the text messages that were sent to me prior to the tornado hitting that were people asking if we were underground and if I was watching the weather to the text messages that started about 3:18 that all said are you ok? I was so touched by the number of people who were concerned about us. It meant so much to me. Carolina had sent a message that said Rob was coming to check on us and I was so relieved. I had never wanted out of a place so bad in my life. Hearing all the sirens and helicopters and seeing all the trash but yet having no idea what all this terrible tornado had done was such an awful feeling. We had no electricity and phone service was spotty at best. Finally someone turned on their car to listen to the reports on the radio. And that is when I lost it. We heard that two schools had been hit. I knew that kids were at those schools. I knew they didn't have safe rooms or basements. I was so worried for those kids and felt so sad for the parents. I knew the feelings they probably had when debating whether to pick their kids up from school early and I knew many of them didn't have the benefit of being home like I was. If I wouldn't have had a shelter to go to I would have assumed that Brody would've been safer at school then at my house. The next few hours and days are kind of a blur. Constantly wrestling with feelings of being so thankful that we were spared and so guilty that we were spared. Devastation was all around us. Although we weren't "hit" it still "hit" me in a very big way. It was probably the most emotional I have ever been in my life. I struggled with how close we were to having our lives turned upside down in just one afternoon. The things I will always remember about that day were the outpouring of concern for us from so many people, the moms and dads parking miles away from Brody's school and running up to the school just to go hug their babies, the families walking for miles into our neighborhood so they could stay at family/friends houses because their house was destroyed, traffic so insane that going a 1/2 mile could take up to 45 minutes, the teachers that were still up at Brody's school at 9:30 at night waiting with the remaining kids while their parents tried to get to the school to pick them up, and Bryson driving for hours and hours from Tulsa just so he could get home to hug our necks. It wasn't until our church service that Wednesday evening that I was finally able to feel a little better. The words that our college minister said that night spoke to me and helped me to move beyond the guilt I had been feeling. Things are a little bit more "normal" around our neck of the woods these days but I will never forget May 20th and I will forever be grateful that God kept me and my babies safe that day.
And below are the only pictures I have that Brody took from the car a few days after the tornado.
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