By Kate Walters, American Red Cross

The wind roared like the classic freight train tornado survivors often described. The sky turned a shade of gray Jeanette Broderick had never seen before. Within seconds, her world was torn apart. Walls splintered. Furniture flew. The roof peeled away like paper.

Curled into a ball at the foot of her bed, 76-year-old Jeanette braced herself as the tornado tore through her home, leaving behind only devastation, and then silence. When it was over, her hearing aids were gone, buried somewhere in the wreckage or flung beyond. But Jeanette was alive, a living miracle pulled from the rubble.

Just after the storm passed, her son Kenneth jumped into his truck and drove the short distance to find her amid the wreckage and helped her out of the ruins. Jeanette took refuge with Kenneth and his family, where she began the long journey of recovery.

American Red Cross volunteers met Jeanette when she arrived at the Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) in Doniphan, MO, in search of support from her community. She walked in with resilience in her step and a flicker of hope in her heart.

She had just lived through a nightmare, a tornado that not only destroyed her home but also took her hearing aids, her sense of place, and the familiar rhythm of her everyday life. But amid the heartbreak, she carried quiet courage and a story that left everyone deeply moved.

“I was at the foot of my bed, curled up in a ball,” she recounted. “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t feel anything past my legs. I didn’t even know where the house went. The ceiling had collapsed on top of me.”

The twister had ripped through her neighborhood with relentless force. Windows The roof of her house was completely torn off. In those terrifying moments, Jeanette’s only instinct was to survive. Somehow, she did.

“You are a miracle,” said Cathy Gordon, a Red Cross Disaster Health Services from Shawnee, KS, shaking her head in disbelief. “You really are.”

Kenneth had pulled her from the wreckage, but it was clear Jeanette had lost nearly everything: clothes, furniture, treasured keepsakes — and her hearing aids. For Jeanette, who cannot hear out of her right ear, those devices were essential for staying connected to the world around her. Without them, even simple moments with family become difficult, making it harder to stay fully present in the lives of her loved ones.

At the MARC, the Red Cross immediately opened a case for her. A health services volunteer was assigned to help her begin the process of replacing the hearing aids, often some of the hardest personal items to replace after a disaster.

“I want to help you, if that’s okay,” Cathy said gently. “I’m going to get you into the Red Cross system right now so one of our nurses can follow up and help get those replaced, okay?”

Jeanette nodded. “Okay.”

She shared her story calmly, even with a spark of amazement and energy in her voice.

Jeanette’s father and husband had both passed away within the same year not long ago. Now, with her home destroyed and her hearing disrupted, grief weighed heavily once again.

But Jeanette smiled through her tears. Her spirit remained strong.

“I kept saying, ‘I can’t live through this,’” she said, her eyes bright with memory. “But somehow, I did. I just held on for dear life.”

Her husband always said she could survive anything, relayed her daughter-in-law, Bonnie Broderick. “And now look,” she said, chuckling softly, “he was right!”

Even in the face of trauma, Jeanette hadn’t lost her sense of humor. She laughed as she remembered trying to cancel her Dish Network service.

“They told me I needed to return the box,” she said. “I told them, ‘Well, you can come out and search through the trees for it if you want!’”

Cathy grinned. “That’s the spirit. Let’s verify your address next, and I’ll get your information into the system so we can get started.”

Jeanette’s case was entered into the Red Cross health services queue. Thanks to her excellent memory, she even recalled the name of the clinic where she originally got her hearing aids. Cathy looked it up on the spot and added it to the case notes.

“That’ll help speed everything up,” Cathy explained. “We’ll reach out to the provider, see if we can work with them or one of our nonprofit partners to get the replacements covered or discounted. And if Medicare can help, we’ll walk you through that, too.”

Jeanette’s face lit up. “You’re doing all this for me?”

“We’re going to do everything we can,” Cathy replied.

At the MARC, Jeanette received gift cards for cleaning supplies, connected with feeding services, and received contact information for additional recovery resources. Her arms were full of assistance—and her heart, fuller than it had been in days.

“I was overwhelmed when I first got here,” she admitted. “But I knew if I could just talk to someone, things might start to get better.”

Now, the Red Cross is walking alongside her, with a dedicated contact to support her every step of the way. From confirming her previous provider to coordinating with local audiologists, they are committed to helping Jeanette regain something she thought she’d lost forever: the ability to hear.

“This is why I love doing this work,” Cathy said. “Because people like Jeanette deserve everything we can give them. And she’s going to get her hearing aids back.”

Jeanette’s journey isn’t over. Her home still needs to be rebuilt. Her community still bears the storm’s scars. But with the Red Cross by her side, one of the hardest parts --regaining her hearing  -- is already in motion.

“I’m just thankful,” she said quietly, holding Bonnie’s hand. “That I’m still here. That people care. And that I’ll be able to hear the birds again.”