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I Was There: Plains Tornado Outbreak, May 3, 1999 (By Tommy Wayne Tucker, aged 17) (Part Two) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Rated "PG" by the Author.
A boy copes with the memories of the Oklahoma City Tornado of May 3, 1999, that killed his family.
When I saw the bodies of my dead family members, I started screaming, and that was when everything went black. When I came to, I was startled to find myself in a strange room, in a bed, a nurse bending over me.
I was in the hospital. I was wondering how I had gotten here; but the nurse said that I had been knocked out when a piece of wood slammed into my head; and I was surprised to find a bandage covering my forehead. My head hurt like hell, and I also hurt everywhere else; but miracles of miracles, no bones were broken.
I thought of the storm and seeing my family lying dead and broken, and also my mother being impaled; and I started crying hysterically. I woud never see my family again, and I would never know the joy of performing with them as members of the Tucker Family Bluegrass Outfit, and that our dreams of playing on the Grand Ole Opry were now a memory that was fading fast. I would never be bothered again by my bratty little sisters, Velda-June, 9, or six-year-old Jackie Raye, and suddenly I felt horrible because I had not been very nice to them, and I remembered telling them on several occasions that I wish that they would just die. I also would never eat my mom's fantastic homemade cornbread biscuits or her country fried steak and mashed potatoes, and I would never again get to help my dad with the car whenever it broke down.
At the memories of my family, I started crying, and the nurse tried her best to calm me. But I was too shattered at the memories of my family being dead and seeing them broken and bleeding; and I knew that I would probably be plagued by reaccuring nightmares for quite some time to come.
I would also probably have to go to counseling, to help me deal with all the bad memories and the trauma of the storm outbreak. Which brings me to today.
I am 17 now; the situation happened over four years ago, and I have been undergoing mental counseling every week, to help me deal with the memories; and I also have been writing faithfully in a journal that the shrink provided for me. The journal has helped a lot, and it has allowed me to express my innermost feelings, and in turn, it has allowed me to heal. I am much better than I was emotionally, but physically is another matter altogether. I don't sleep well at night, and just the mere threat or mention of storms is enough to send me into a blind panic. I am living at my NiNi Rose's house in Moore, and she has been busy raising me. I think she has been doing a bang up job at putting up with me, and if it were not for her or her gracious, generous spirit, I would probably be stuck in some orphanage full of other kids. I still have nightmares about the tornado, and I don't like it when it storms. I am a complete basketcase when it storms, and people just don't seem to understand what I have been through. They tell me to "get over it", but the trouble is, I CAN'T. If it were not for the fucking tornado on May 3, 1999, I would still have my life as I once knew it, and I would still have my family!
Then people wonder why I am the way I am whenever it storms.
~Tommy Wayne ("Storm Phobic") Tucker, aged 17 (Written on Wednesday, June 9, 2004, at 11:06 a.m., C.S.T.).
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
When I saw the bodies of my dead family members, I started screaming, and that was when everything went black. When I came to, I was startled to find myself in a strange room, in a bed, a nurse bending over me.
