A 73-year-old woman died when a tornado hit her Grayson County home Monday. Now family members are working to honor her life.
The National Weather Service Confirmed the tornado that swept through Sherwood Shores in Grayson County Monday night was an EF-2 with sustained winds of at least 130 mph.
NBC 5 confirmed 73-year-old Viranda Rodgers died in the tornado. As family members sifted through the destruction that was once her home, they found mementos. They held tightly to pie plates and anything else they believed would keep her memory alive.
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Rodger’s niece, Regena Wicker, said her family always bonded over pies. And during those special moments, her Aunt Viranda was there. So, the pie plates she found in the rubble mean more than she ever thought they would.
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“My family, they cook a lot of pies and so I picked those up. That kind of stuff,” she said. “Sometimes we’d have more pies than we had regular food it seemed like.”
At times, while rummaging through the debris, family members were overtaken by emotion.
“We had no idea what we were going to be walking into really. And so, when me and my sister and brother-in-law got here, we're devastated,” said Wicker. “The house was literally picked up and just flipped completely over.”
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Wicker said she’s reassured by neighbors who stop and share personal stories about Rodgers.
“Today somebody said she’s the type that would give you the shirt off her back and stuff and they said out of all people why her house, why this one?” said Wicker.
Cleanup in Sherwood Shores will be long and tedious. But with every step, it seemed something was found; a reminder of who Viranda Rodgers was and what was most important.
“Don’t take your loved ones for granted. She wouldn’t,” Wicker said. “She always called to check on us and I hope that everyone in the family continues that.”
Family members told us Rodgers is survived by a husband and her children.
The National Weather Service reported 11 other injuries in the tornado.
