By Allison Roberts

Usually, Connie Corman, who works at the State Farm complex, goes home for lunch. But on the day of the 2009 storm, her husband, Dave, also a State Farm employee, told her she should stay at the office.

The decision probably saved her life.

This wasn’t the first time the corner lot on General Kirk Drive where they live had seen the face of disaster. A few years earlier, their home had been damaged by fire, forcing them to rebuild. This time, there would be nothing to rebuild.

The tornado that struck their home deposited sections of the house throughout the neighborhood. The stairwell, where their dog Sissy sought refuge, shifted about 10 inches. Their other dogs, boxers named Maggie and Tanner, were able to escape when the storm opened their kennels.
“There wasn’t much left of the house,” Connie said.

When the tornado ripped through the neighborhood, it scattered the contents of their house near and far. Their tax returns were found more than a mile away, while photo albums landed in a neighbor’s house.

“The albums were up there and completely dry,” Dave said

Connie lost a twin bedroom suit that once belonged to her parents and a sewing machine that once belonged to Dave’s mother. Furniture bought when they lived in Germany for three years were never recovered.

After 37 years of marriage, Dave and Connie were forced to start over. They were left with only one piece of furniture: a hope chest Dave now calls an antique.

“I guess, to me, that is where you feel kind of lost because all of a sudden you don’t know where any of your stuff is,” Dave says. “You don’t have anything anymore.”

The Cormans traded the corner lot on General Kirk Drive for a corner lot about a mile away from Kittrell Elementary School.

“Two major things you never dream would happen to you happened to us there, so we decided we’d had enough of this corner,” Dave said.