Tornado victim's wife recalls tragedy

HENRYVILLE, Ind. (WISH) - It’s been a year since the tornadoes in Henryville, and much has been done to replace and rebuild what was lost. But for one woman, what was lost will never be replaced.

Lenora Hunter lost her husband of 41 years, Wayne, in the tornado. He was the only person to lose their life in Henryville.

The couple would have celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in February.

“That’s more than half of me that I lost,” said Lenora, sitting in her newly rebuilt home, that sits in the same place as their old home.

She and her husband Wayne watched the tornado come in, recording it on home video. Suddenly, the tape cut to black: they’d realized the tornado was heading straight for them.

They ran for cover, and “He said I love you, and I said I love you too.”

The tornado destroyed their home and threw them both up with it. Lenora survived, badly hurt, and Wayne was killed.

“I just miss the everyday, the everyday life, that I don’t have anymore,” she explained.

Lenora moved into her home on the same plot of land in October. She says she’d grown up there, as well.

• ONLINE EXTRA | Rebuilding continues in Henryville

“It’s difficult to live without him, but to live here, this is home,” she said. “This is where we raised our kids, this is where I was raised, I feel safe here still.”

She says she was asked to be in the parade Henryville is having on Saturday, but says, she just can’t.

“They should be celebrating, Henryville has come a long way,” she said. “But I can’t celebrate. I can’t celebrate the day my husband was killed. I just can’t.”

She says she lives now for her family. She says she also has a message for others.

“You don’t have tomorrow,” she said. “Treat people like you’d want to be treated, and just love them. Only thing I can say, just love them.”