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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.).
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This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
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.
