“I was in the washroom getting clothes together when I heard a loud noise. It was the tornado. A pipe in my house burst, and I couldn’t get out because my door was jammed by a tree. I was without gas, water and heat for five days. That was devastating, baby. You don’t miss something until it’s gone. 

I was helped by Samaritan’s Purse, The Red Cross, churches, and volunteers who cut trees from my house and tarped my roof. The people who I thought wouldn’t look at me or help me extended their hospitality.  All of that help felt like the love of God. I invited them in and extended my loving arms. 

I never had a tornado happen to my property like this. A long time ago, I was taking my grandbaby back to New Orleans. As we drove up Highway 5, the sky on my left was orange and had black smoke in it. The car began to shake. By the time we pulled over, the tornado was to the right of us.  All I could see was a big gray-looking wind with stuff flying all around. It had a black tail swinging left and right. It came over our car, but it didn’t hurt us. We proceeded to New Orleans like nothing happened.

We moved to Selma when I was ten years old to be with my grandmother. She worked in the mess hall at the Air Force base for 25 years.

I was in the 8th and 9th grade during the civil rights movement in Selma. Some nights when my mother was at work, my sister and I slipped out to see the meetings at Brown Chapel AME church.

After watching what has happened after the tornado, I believe Selma is going to once again be a town or refuge where everybody is coming to be saved. I would take that to my grave.”

Mrs. Rosemary