March 28, 2000

Today is March 28, 2009. Nine years ago my soon to be husbands life changed forever. My father in law was named Howard but went by Doug to his friends and family. He went to work nine years ago today like he always did. He was a truck driver for Monkey Wards. He said goodbye to his sons Mike and Steve. Steve and Doug didnt always get along so great, but they had a good day spending most of the day together and getting along. He said goodbye and goodnight because he worked at night. But he never came home. We knew about the bad weather that was comming. It was like any other spring storm we have endured living in Texas. He got to work and saw the tornado coming towards them. The security guards were in a rinky little tin shack he ran to the shack and banged on the door to tell them to take cover. He then took off running towards the warehouse. He didnt make it to the building before the tornado hit. He was crushed by the trailer he was supposed to be hauling, but he saved the mens lives that were in the shack. We knew the tornado had hit at Monkey Wards, it was on the news so we (my mother in law, Steve, Mike, Sammy, Mandy and I) pile into mine and Steve's car. We get to downtown Ft. Worth and find out that we cant get anywhere close to Monkey Wards with the car, so we park behind a building a couple of blocks away. Patty stays in the car with the kids, and Steve and I take off towards Wards to see if we can find his Dad cause we had not heard from him. We get to the corner of Wards (its Seventh St and something elese I am not sure) and a buch of officers and people are walking around. We stop an officer and ask about where the employees are gathered, because our Dad works here and we havent heard fom him and want to make sure he is all right. The officers then tells us where they all are and another one said there had been one death. Well Steve askes if he had run into a man named named Howard. The officer looked at Steve with a look I will never forget and he said son you need to go home. We knew right then, you see the uniforms the drivers wore had thier names stiched aboved the pocket so he was alreagy idenified. A couple of hours later we got offical comfirmation that he was gone from this world and into a better place. This family will never be the same without him, and we will not forget him. Thats the story of March 28 2000.