Three lives were lost when the May 3rd, 1999 tornado crossed over 15th street just east of S. Sooner Road. Two of those lives, family members.

The man we considered our great-grandfather, just turning 80 and weighing less than a buck ten, got his wife, half his age, and got into their car to try and out run the oncoming tornado. The tornado pushed our great-grandfathers car into a tree in the field just north of their house. His chest hit the steering wheel stopping his heart and passing away as the air was sucked from inside the car. His wife, Patsy, was pulled half way out of the car before her upper half left her bottom half in the car. This is how the first responders found them.

Their car, the last place they were alive, sat in the back lot of another family members house for many years. Still showing the scars and bent metal, now rusty with age.

We knew it was an impossibility for them with such a wide age range to go at the same time as they always wished they would, and this was their chance. This May will be 18 years.