Thankful People: Judi Lawrence leans on faith during and in aftermath of Perryville tornado

Judi Lawrence is thankful to be alive. She survived the tornado that ripped through parts of Perryville, Missouri, on Feb. 28.

"I was upstairs watching a movie, and my daughter texted me and said I should get on the KFVS weather app," she says. "I saw [the bad weather] was getting mighty close, so I went downstairs to my furnace room. Then, I thought I should go back upstairs and grab my medications. So, I ran back upstairs and I saw my purse and I grabbed it, and I touched my medication bottles, but I decided that I better go back downstairs. So I left my medication and ran back down into the furnace room and shut the door."

Lawrence got back down into her basement in the nick of time.

"Then, the noises hit," she says. "It sounded like 10 freight trains."

Lawrence, who is faith-filled, says she cried out for Jesus during the tornado.

Judi Lawrence poses for a photo in front of her home Nov. 9 in Perryville, Missouri. Judi moved into her home May 11, after her last home was demolished from a Feb. 28 tornado that swept through Perryville.Andrew J. Whitaker

"I screamed the name of Jesus probably 20 to 30 times, and I kept banging my hand on some of the shelving in the furnace room to take some of the tension out of my body," she says.

"Then, it felt like God's hands were holding the walls (of the house) down for me. I could hear all kinds of ripping, tearing and banging. And dust from where some of the wall insulation was coming into the furnace room underneath the door. When it was over, I said, 'Lord, I don't know what I'm going to see [when I go upstairs].'"

While Lawrence's home was badly damaged, she says she didn't lose everything.

"Mine was not a total loss," she says. "I lost a lot, but I didn't lose my subfloor."

Lawrence says she estimates 35 percent to 40 percent of her walls still were standing. Most of her furniture was badly damaged because of the rain that was coming down.

"Amazingly, some dishes survived," she says. "About the only furniture that was salvageable were things like bed frames."

Lawrence jokes 90 percent of her clothing was saved because, as she put it, "God knows that I hate to shop!"

She says she also was relieved some of her items with sentimental value were spared.

"The drawer where I had saved my first Communion book was open, and the book was gone," she says. "But a neighbor about three houses down found it and brought it back to me. And my mom's hope chest survived. It was sitting on the floor in my spare bedroom where all the walls were down, but the chest was still sitting right there."

Another keepsake, Lawrence's grandfather's corner table, also survived the tornado. So did some pieces of jewelry that mean a lot to her.

"In my bedroom, where some walls were still standing, I had a ring that said, 'Believe in Miracles,' some pierced earrings and my cross necklace, and they were all still sitting on my dresser," she says.

Lawrence says she wasn't injured in the tornado.

"My neighbor, Brad Randolph, came and checked on me after the tornado hit to make sure that I was OK," she says.

Lawrence says many of her neighbors' homes sustained major damage as well.

"Both houses on the side of me had partial walls gone, and at the house directly behind me, the subfloor was gone."

Lawrence says her car and an old pickup truck also were badly damaged in the tornado.

After the tornado, Lawrence temporarily moved in with her daughter, Chantel, and her granddaughter, Allison, who lived nearby.

"I stayed there for about a month," she says. "My insurance gave me money for a rental right away. So I rented a home after about a month."

Eventually, Lawrence sold her property and bought a different home.

"We cleaned the property up and had it excavated, and then one day when I was over there, a Realtor, Amy Cates, and a young couple, Tyler and Brittany Koenig, came walking up and asked if I was selling the property," Lawrence says. "I said, 'Yes,' and told them my price, and they said they would buy it. They wanted to build a home on the property, and my neighbors, the Randolphs, also sold their property to the same couple."

The timing of the sale couldn't have been better for Lawrence.

"Two weeks before I sold the property, I had put a contact with a contingency on a different house in Perryville," she says. "So [selling that property] solved all my problems."

When asked how she feels surviving the tornado has affected her life, Lawrence says it put several things in perspective.

"It basically taught me that material things are not nearly as important as your life," Lawrence says. "And that I'm here for a purpose or God would have taken me home that day. He's got plans for me, and I've just got to keep moving forward."

Lawrence also says surviving the tornado ordeal gave her more of a giving heart.

"It has freed me from believing that I have to have all this stuff," she says. "And, it's given me more of a giving heart because so many people gave me things after this happened. Strangers would come up to me and give me gift cards to Buchheit's."

Lawrence, who is retired, worked as a teacher's assistant in early childhood special education in Perry County School District No. 32 for 24 years. She says the teachers in the Perry County School District as well as students from area schools all reached out to help Perryville residents who had been affected by the tornado.

"The teachers washed all of our clothes at the Perry Plaza Laundromat, and students from many different area school districts helped clear property," she says.

Lawrence says Christian music also helped her to heal after the tornado.

"Two special songs that God used to pull me through were 'What a Beautiful Name' by Hillsong Worship and 'Magnify' by We Are Messengers," she says. "They truly taught me that eternity matters, not all this material stuff."

A sign a neighbor's daughter posted on their house after the tornado touched Lawrence as well.

"The sign said, 'Don't tell God how big your storm is. ... Tell your storm how big your God is,'" she says.

Lawrence says she feels as if she has turned a corner through the tornado ordeal.

"I'm at a point now that I feel like it's a brand-new life," she says. "I've gotten through the grieving period, and I'm now where I can start fixing up my new house."