April Column Winner

"Ty" that binds

By Sheila Gay, Woodward News

Where do I begin?

This tragic night would bring a community together in a way that we would soon not forget.

We had gone to bed as the worst of the storm was over, or so we thought.

About midnight, I received a call from a co-worker that lived near me stating she was on her way over to stay in our basement, the tornado had turned, and Woodward was in its path.

I was in a disbelief state of mind, as I began checking news channels and calling my husband. How could things have changed so quickly? Where are my family members? So many questions begin to swirl in your mind with truly no answers.

After tracking down most of my family and co-workers, the terror of what has happened to our little community began to settle in.

Cell phones were jammed most of the night with everyone trying to contact their loved ones only to hear the busy line signal. The eeriness of the night was silent with the devastation the tornado had left in its quake.

Panic begins when you have unreturned calls from your family that you know do not have basements.

Then you jump in your car and drive to your daughter’s apartment to look for them on the side of town where the devastation was waiting to appear in the morning light that was just beginning to show.

That drive was one of the scariest of my life. Thankfully, they had found refuge in a basement a couple of blocks from their apartment. My family was safe but so many had lost so much.

My mom received a call shortly after that would forever change our lives.

My sister’s family had received a call that her step-son “Skip” Hobbie and his 2 daughters Faith (7 yrs) and Kelly (5 yrs) had been injured and did not make it and his step-son, Ty (1.5 yrs) had been medi-flighted to Lubbock, Texas for injuries.

On the third day of this unthinkable tragedy, I received a call from DHS asking my husband and I to become Ty’s guardian.

There was no hesitation, there was no let me think about how life changing this can be, there was only the thought of we are here, send us!

We went through the preliminary steps of becoming the guardians and loaded into our truck along with our daughter, Chelsea and headed to Lubbock to pick Ty up, or so we thought.

Upon arrival, we found this child asleep in a body cast from the waist down lying in a red flyer wagon on top of pillows. They did this to sooth him and it made it easier to move him around. My heart filled with a sadness for this little boy and tears of wonderment that he was still alive after all that he had been through knowing that there would be so much more for him to over-come in the near future.

After we were informed of what we needed to know about his condition, they said they would transport him to OU Medical Center and I signed my first official document as his guardian. Realizing we may be standing in the gap for more things to come.

After a rush back to Woodward while they transported him by ambulance to OU Medical, we were back on the road to meet him.

The tornado that ravaged through Hideaway Trailer Park had left Ty with broken femur bones, lacerations to the head, broken arm, an arm that quite literally almost ripped off, more gashes and cuts. But the most amazing thing in all of this is no internal injuries…….let me repeat that no internal injuries…..how amazing is that? A child that was thrown quite a distance from his family in a field where they had lost their lives and yet this little boy had injuries but none that would leave him disabled.

Fast forward to June of 2012, Ty has his body cast removed but has to learn how to walk and move around again so he begins physical therapy.

We had learned while Ty was in Bethany Children’s Hospital for recovery, how to help his wound on his shoulder heal properly. I’m not a nurse and it was hard to basically “rip” the flesh out each day with some-thing they called silver so that it would make it grow and we would not have to do a graph of skin to fill the gap. The arm did heal and there will forever be a scar that will remind us of that night but also what a fighter Ty is.

It has now been 10 years since that fateful night and life has moved on.

Ty is now in the 5th grade and doing well! His wounds have healed but some triggers still remain. He is very weather aware and has some occasional thoughts about that night that come at random times but mostly during the month of April in particular.

He’s your typical almost 12 year old and enjoys many interests.

When we look back at the last 10 years as a family many changes have happened in our family to include grandchildren and our adoption of Ty five years ago.

There were many times in the first 6 months after the tornado that I felt so many emotions, tears, and concerns for the future, but God reminded me that he had always been a step a head of us each and every time we needed him. I thought the entire time I was in control but I can see now the moments he was leading us and guiding us through many challenges and creating the “Ty’s” that would bind us together as a family.