I don't know what to do or say. I look about me at all the destruction, and all I can do is cry. Our home was destroyed--along with our very lives.

This is Deidre Brownwood. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, with my husband of 18 years, Robert Blake, and three children, Raylee (14), Forrest (7), and Sam (10).

We did have four children; however, as much as I don't want to believe it, our second oldest child, Dominick, is dead.

He was killed last night when a tree fell on him during the height of the storms that raced through the Tennessee Valley. He went outside to put his bike away, even as it was tornado-ing, hailing, pouring rain outside, and the tree fell.

I saw it happen, and I wish I hadn't. It was horrific, to say the least.

Dominick was only twelve years old, just a child.

Ever since then, I have been throwing up nonstop, and I can't stop shaking, let alone crying, especially when the doctors at the hospital last night pronounced him dead. Now Dominick's gone, and we have lost our home, our very life.

We are staying at a shelter the Red Cross has set up for displaced tornado victims, and as bad as we may  have it, there's parts of the south that have had it far worse. I don't know about that; we've lost a child--and our home, Things here look pretty bad.

I don't know if I can get through this.

I don't know if I can handle the planning of the funeral for Dominick, or the funeral itself, or the dark, empty days without his bright, sunny personality gracing our lives. Dominick was a joy, a very intelligent boy who did very well in school (he was in the sixth grade at Eastview Elementary), and he sang in the children's praise/worship team at our church, Christ Community Assembly of God.

Dominick was the kind of child who comforting a hurting soul, witnessed to others about the saving grace of Christ, the kind of kid who lived life to the full. He was always smiling, always had a song in his heart.

He was incredible.

I can't sleep, can't even think. I don't know how we are going to replace the items we've lost in the storms, and I don't know how we are going to find a new place to live, especially since the country's in such a bad way, financially speaking. We may be headed for a recession, and the housing market is doing poorly, with higher interest rates, and so forth.

I also don't know how our family is going to survive the next few weeks, the next few months--the next few years--without Dominick.

Well, I have to get back to going through the stuff that's scattered about me, try to pick up the things the twister didn't tear to pieces, just like it did my heart!

Just keep us in your prayers; we can really use them now!

~Deidre Brownwood. :( >tears!<