Tragedy leads to appreciation for life

Last weekend, 12 people were killed in Mississippi from a terrible tornado outbreak.

I have been watching some of the most courageous, tear jerking stories that have really touched my heart and made me think about how we take life for granted sometimes.

I was happy to see a lot of intelligent people who knew exactly what to do during a tornado instead of panicking and really getting themselves injured or even killed.

If there was one person at a residence that told everyone to move to the interior bathroom before the tornado took away the house, that person needs to be thanked because they just saved your life.

A story that has really brought some tears over the past few days is a mother in Mississippi who gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her three boys.

A mattress covering the children with the mother lying on top of it, kept the boys on the ground as the twister sucked everything out of their home. The twister tragically killed the mother, but her three boys walked away with minor scrapes and scratches.

In my 25 years of life, I have never witnessed a tornado doing devastating damage here in Russellville — knock on wood — so I really think we should count our blessings since it seems we have dodged a twister or two through the years.

My first cousin has been helping clean up down in Mississippi and he told me the people there are just like us, a small town community that truly believed — yeah, we had some close calls but it will never happen to us.

He said the small town he is currently helping is a very tight-nit community, lending a hand to each other every day as the debris continues to be moved around.

He said the tornado was outright devastating to the folks there, but spirits are starting to pick up and the town looks like a blank canvas and is ready for artists to create their own masterpieces again.

I can’t even come close to imagining what people effected by the storm are going through at this time.

My cousin said people who were there in Mississippi when the storm hit said it all happened pretty quick, one minute everything is fine and you have a roof over your head and in the next minute the roof is blown off and everything is gone.

Some of the tings that were taken from folks were things that can’t be replaced like pictures, family heirlooms and years of memories in a home that was wiped off the map in one fatal swoop.

My cousin said you would think people would be complaining about the material items lost, but honestly everyone is just thankful to be alive and that is really how it should be.

I hope to never be apart of something that destructive, but in case of a tornado, people have been able to see intelligent decisions that need to be made through this event when facing a life-threatening storm.

I understand people may claim it could never happen here, but that is the same mindset residents had until they were hit by this tornado outbreak.

There I’ve said my peace. Until next time, Later Dayz…