JOPLIN, Mo. — There was a celebration on Tuesday in Joplin. People followed the path of the deadly EF-5 tornado that struck one year ago. It was a celebration for those who survived and to share heartfelt memories for those who did not.
When the tornado swept through Joplin on May 22, it destroyed several churches. One was the Joplin Full Gospel Church where the Carmona family went every Sunday and several other days during the week. The Carmona family was there that Sunday huddled together in prayer when the storm passed through forever changing their family.
Kari and Moises Carmona started off as an unlikely pair.
“I didn’t like him at all at first,” Kari Carmona said.
Kari was quiet and shy. Moises was a talker and goofy. But Kari says Moises wore her down and they fell deeply in love, got married and had three beautiful girls,Maricela, Adriennah and Arriyannah.
The couple also cared for Kari’s two sisters Kayla and Savannah. It was a house full of love and laughter. Kari and Moises took the whole family to the Joplin Full Gospel Church several times a week. It’s now just a cement slab.
On Saturday, May 21, 2011, the family was at church for a rally. Moises and his eight-year-old daughter, Arriyanah stayed together praying. As Kari looks back on that day, she says it gives her comfort to know her husband and daughter spent their last day that way. The next Sunday, May 22 began normally enough.
When news of a storm heading toward Joplin got to people at the church they ran to take cover and pray. While most kids were screaming, Kari said her daughter wasn’t. After the tornado passed, Kari’s world spun into an emotional twister. Her husband Moises and her little girl Arriyanah were dead. They had just been sitting next to her.
She writes because it’s too hard to talk about the memory. ‘I remember that when they finally pulled me out, I saw all but one of my kids sitting on the back of my truck. No Arriy. I’m screaming. I demanded to hold my lifeless baby. I held her until they took us to another location then they took her body and put it in a pile.”
“It didn’t feel real that day,” she said.
Now, a year later, it feels more real. Painfully, real. Kari’s suddenly a single mom. No husband and one less little girl.
“Moises made the money,” she said. “I worked two hours and I still work tow hours. It’s a lot more stress and strain.”
Finances are tight with her part time job and the girls are having a difficult time adjusting and at times they act out.
“They miss their dad. I try to do what I can, but it doesn’t fill that void in their life either,” she said.
Audri is in third grade. That’s the same grade her sister Arriy would’ve been in this year. She says the school year felt different, sadder and so does home with no daddy to greet her.
The girls hold bears with a physical reminder, a recording of their sister’s voice. It makes them smile every time. In their hearts, they hold memories of Moises. The memories never leave and neither does their loneliness and grief.
The Carmonas try not to remind rhemselves of the trauma they suffered but Kari can’t help avoid the now empty lot where her daughter and husband were killed. They’re doing their best to forget the bad memories of that day and focus on the good and the good to come.
They’re involved with the effort to emotionally rebuild Joplin, collecting donations of inspiring gifts. It’s a new direction for this family, forced to go on with two fewer smiling faces.
A family who one year after the worst day imaginable now focuses on making every new day better. A better one for their family and anyone hurting around them. Kari has decided she has to move away from Joplin. The constant threat of storms and the constant reminders of her family’s loss are too much to take.
The reason Kari wanted to talk to FOX 4 was to get the message out to anyone going through a similar life experience that they’re not alone and there is life after tragic loss.
