DIRECT HIT

It was our turn, I guess. After all the talking I've done about Mother Nature, I guess she decided to get back at me. This time, my family was in her Bulls-Eye. The tornadoes that roared through the state today made its way through the tiny community of Heafer, Arkansas.

It destroyed the home of a good friend of my family. It also destroyed my dad's shop, the one he had lovingly built over the last few years at the house they will retire to someday.

When the weatherman said there was a tornado on the ground at the intersection of Highway 42 and Highway 181; my mother started crying. She has friends and relatives in that community. The only home she has ever owned is also in that community, and the tornado was less than a mile away from it.

We waited anxiously for news after the storm passed, but all the circuits were busy. Finally, a call from aunt came. She was crying, as she told my parents that Dad's shop was destroyed.

Yes, it's only a building, and a small one at that. Yes, it can be replaced. Yes, we are thankful no lives were lost, and yes, we realize how very lucky we were that their home wasn't taken in the storm.

Yet, still, there is pain. My Dad loved that shop. He loved tinkering and puttering and creating. He had it organized just so, with everything where he wanted it and how he wanted it. It was exactly what he wanted it to be, and he took a great deal of pleasure in it. Now it is gone, and with that comes a heavy heart.

Once again, Mother Nature has unleashed her fury, but once again, we will prevail. We spent hours picking through rubble and debris Friday afternoon, trying to save what we could. We will rebuild Dad's shop, and it will be done exactly the way he wants it. It will be organized just so, and it will be as good if not better.

Mother Nature is tough. But nobody hurts my Daddy and gets away with it; so we will rebuild...bigger, better, more, longer, taller; whatever it is he wants that will make him smile again.

We will survive, and we will get through just another one of those things that living life throws at you.