On Good Friday 2009, John Bayne left early from his overnight job in Nashville to take his wife Beverly out for breakfast to celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary. On their way home their youngest daughter Christina, who works in Murfreesboro, called to say she and her co-workers were being moved to the storm shelter.
When John and Beverly returned to their house on the corner of Crosspark and Crosswoods Drive, they planned to pack for an Easter visit with family in Florida. Instead they both ended up in front of the TV, watching news about the weather.
A few minutes later, John looked out the back door and saw the black cloud a few blocks away moving towards him. His son, John Jr., flung open the door to a small closet beneath the stairs and the family huddled in the cramped space, clinging to one another. Suddenly the power went out. Seconds later the noises ceased. The three of them crawled out from under the stairwell and sighed to find their house more or less intact.
“That’s how that day started…the rest was just chaos for the next three or four days,” John explained about how he felt when he stepped outside to survey the damage.
The only damage they sustained was on their roof, front porch, a few shattered windows, and the shed in the backyard. Strangely enough the metal frame of the shed was gone, but the brand new lawn mower and tiller were on the ground, untouched. Just two blocks away however, their close friends, the Coscos, lost their home. John brushed his salt and pepper mustache with his fingertips as he reflected on how close the tornado had come to uprooting his family’s life.
John said because of the tornado, there’s no way he’ll ever forget his anniversary.