During the recession that started in 2008, my husband lost his job and through the next few years we struggled. In 2012, he got a job in Illinois where some of his family lived, and so we decided to go there for a fresh start. From the moment I arrived, the town was exactly what I had hoped for. A quintessential town with so much history. It was safe and had beautiful parks. I got a part time job in a preschool and was happier than I had been in years. I called this town “my little Shang ri la.” Then sixteen months after we moved there, an E-F tornado hit our town. We had about 3 minutes to prepare before it hit our house. As the town siren wailed and the lights went out, we took cover under the staircase in the basement. It only took about one minute for the tornado to destroy 1400 homes in our neighborhood, including ours. The aftermath was actually worse than the tornado itself in many ways.”

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