I can't imagine. I simply can not imagine . . . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . . . . what it must have been like for that poor, poor woman in Yazoo City and her two children. She sheltered them beneath her own body and protected herself with a mattress. She was found, dead, but her two kids survived, found still sheltered by their Mom.

The very thought of this is quite overwhelming.

I have heard this story a few times now, and it is still hard to fathom what that must have been like. How will those kids fare?

I can't imagine. I simply can not imagine.

:cry:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. depends on what they learn from it...

either unimaginable sorrow at their loss...or the unimaginable love that saved them. tragedy reaches out to touch most people at one time or another...and to some degree it makes you who you are.

sP

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Thank you Stinky for giving this tragedy a face

There are some here at DU who do not want to help the victims of these terrible storms.

[hootinholler]

3. What are you on about Stinky?

:shrug:

I've obviously missed something.

-Hoot

[ZeitgeistObserver]

6. Tornado in Mississippi.

It's instinctive with most people I guess. I remember when JFK was killed, parents threw their kids to the ground and covered them with their bodies when they heard shots.

[BlooInBloo]

4. I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds ghastly.

[rsmith6621]

5. How About a Link...

To this story..

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Link here:

http://www.wapt.com/weather/23270225/detail.html

[ljm2002]

7. There was a similar story in the earthquake in China...

...an infant was dug out of the rubble, underneath its mother who had sheltered the child with her body. She had left a text message on her cell phone, telling of her love for her child in case she did not survive and the child did -- and that is what happened.

These kinds of decisions are made in a split second. It sounds like the mom in Yazoo City instinctively did what mothers tend to do: she protected her young first, and then herself.

May she rest in peace.

It won't be easy for her children. Hopefully her love will continue to shine through into their lives. Certainly her last act was a loving one.

[Hekate]

8. I hope those children grow up knowing how much their mother loved them, Stinky

On one level I think it is absolutely instinctual for a mother to put her body between her children and harm. Most of us are never put in a situation that extreme, but in a moment of crisis you either think and act very fast or you collapse and are useless. The thing about having little children is that a mom knows in her gut -- in her very cells -- that her little ones are dependent on her for life itself. I saw this in my own mother, then myself, I see it in my daughter now.

Sherry Carpenter didn't want to die, but she wanted her children to live more, and she threw her body between her children and an almighty tornado. She won. Like you, I find myself in tears.

Hekate

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. The reason this resonates with us is because it is an instinctual maternal response

The majority of us can either relate to our own mother's protections, or reminisce as to our feelings of protectiveness toward our own children. It hits us right in the heart of one of the greatest driving forces of our species. The love of a mother for her children. A love which can be so intense it supersedes our personal survival instinct.

[lib2DaBone]

10. This couldnt have anything to do with the guy on TV who said he was in a church...?

.and when the tornado came he went under the table and only HE was saved... because of Gaaawd and he was in church.... Amen...

I guess the other unlucky people that were not in church at the time got to meet with Gaaawd in person... praise the lord we need more church...

[BrklynLiberal]

12. There are no words... A Mother's Love....

[deaniac21]

13. It's a story I've heard over and over growing up in Arkansas. Tornado Alley.