My Heroes of Joplin

I’m really not quite sure how to even begin this little story. It certainly isn’t a plea for sympathy nor is it the seizing of an opportunity for a hot blog topic. If it were, I’m a little late. As some of my friends here on Activerain know my oldest daughter lives in Joplin, Missouri with my three grand kids.

Tawnya is a single mom working two jobs to make ends meet like many of us in this recession. She works for the Joplin Globe Newspaper (need I say more) which has severely scaled back this last year. She got a second job at Walmart. Normally she would have been working last Sunday but by chance (as you might call it) she had the day off and was home with the boys, Jakob and Tannyr. Tyffanie was across town at the mall when all hell broke loose and the Tornado hit. Walmart was a total loss.

We weren’t able to reach them for a few days with all the chaos that ensued and because most communications were down. Thank God for social media. The first little bits of info about them started coming over Facebook.

S. Florida Ave in their neighborhood after the storm.

People were making signs out of anything they could find and putting them at intersections. With all the familiar landmarks gone, you had no idea what street you were on. It all looked the same.

Fortunately the entire house wasn't blown away like so many around them.

Bless my grandson Jake. They ran for the bathroom to ride out the storm. He told me a horrendous story about trying to get the door shut but everything was moving and stuff was flying all over the place. After several attempts he wrestled it closed when a large section of the roof came off and debris was crashing into the hallway.

On the left, the roof is gone. Tawnya said in an email how thankful she was that the neighbor’s car stayed in the garage and didn’t land on their house.

Although the home is a total loss they did get some of their belongings out and into storage. Jake took a car load of clothes to the emergency shelter for the less fortunate and has been volunteering all week searching homes for survivors and helping out where ever he can.

Jake out front trying to comprehend what just happened.

I am so profoundly grateful my family is okay, safe, and staying with friends. What a powerless feeling to be so far away. I’ve survived some pretty amazing things in my life, but I can’t begin to fathom what this must of been like.

Via email - May 27th... "I am counting my blessings everyday that me and the kids are alive. It was by the grace of God! His hand was over us for sure and I believe because he has bigger and better things for all of us to do."

Love you all,
Tawnya

Amen daughter of mine. Amen...