Tornado Victim Discovers Her Own Christmas Miracle

After a tornado demolished Linda Ratchel’s home in May, her friends found scratched and broken pieces of the nativity scene that were hand-painted by her late mother decades ago.

One friend placed the pieces, still wrapped in newspaper, in a drawer for safekeeping, the only items rescued from her attic.

Last Sunday, hoping to salvage enough to display the nativity scene again this Christmas, Ratchel took stock of what she had: Heads were missing, an eight-inch camel was in eight pieces, and everything was covered in fiberglass and debris from the destroyed house.

And then she saw it: Baby Jesus was intact.

“He was whole and he was perfect. I just sat down in a chair and started crying,” she said.

After losing almost everything she owned, Ratchel said finding the statuette was a miracle.

“I know that God and his angels were watching out for us,” she said, describing how with her daughter and fiance she escaped being injured by the storm.

She plans to put the nativity scene out every year and rebuild her home in the same spot.

The tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma on May 3 killed 44 people and left 8,000 homeless.

Another family who survived received a big Christmas present a couple of days early.

Ron and Leslie Turner of Perry and their two children had been living with family since their home was destroyed. But with the help of the Salvation Army and thousands of listeners of a Sacramento radio station, they moved into a rental home on Thursday with the lease paid for six months and furnishings provided.

Funds for the project came from $100,000 raised by the radio station to furnish tornado victims’ homes. The Turners were the first of several families the Salvation Army will be able to help with the donation.