There is no reason
I should be alive
Children's Hospital nurse survives direct hit from tornado

By Jessica Howard Ennis

Tanya Boswell, R.N., a Pediatric Critical Care Unit nurse, was home sick with the stomach flu when an F3 tornado landed squarely on her two-story Cape Cod style house in Gallatin on April 7.
“I had been lying down sleeping all day. I woke up around 2 p.m. thinking I was about to get sick again so I headed to the bathroom,” she said. “I could feel that something was wrong, and the windows started breaking. I didn’t see rain or lightning—I didn’t hear a train, but I knew it was a tornado.”
Tanya crouched in her master bathroom on the first floor of her home as the wind sent her somersaulting. In those frantic moments, she heard a mirror shatter and felt wood splinter and drywall collapse around her as her 2,200-square-foot house was thrust 100 feet off its foundation and literally smashed into bits.
“It was like a bad amusement ride,” she recalls, of being hit with nearly 200 mph winds. “It seemed like it lasted at least a full minute, but it was probably just seconds. I remember all the smells—gas and even toothpaste because I had just brushed my teeth. It got really quiet, and I started crying for help.”
A neighbor, Jeff Doyle—whose home was also destroyed when the tornado bounced off Boswell’s house and continued its destructive path obliterating nine homes in their cul-de-sac—dug Tanya out of the rubble.
“We were just clinging to each other,” she said. “It must be a miracle of God that I am still here.”
Tanya, who was barefoot, escaped with only bumps, bruises and cut-up feet.
“I was sick, so I was in my nappy pajamas with a ponytail in my hair,” Tanya recalls. The force of the wind sucked the ponytail holder right off her head, taking a chunk of hair with it and leaving a little bald spot.
As she looked around, she saw the contents of her house strewn about—what was left of her house had been slammed into her neighbor’s. Her husband, Cecil’s, 300-pound gun safe was tossed 300 yards away and was cracked completely open with broken guns scattered around it. Their sleeper sofa was sticking out the roof of a neighboring house. The toilet that was just a few feet from her when the tornado struck was never found.

Tanya Boswell, R.N.

Tanya usually works weekends in the PCCU and stays home with her two children Trey, 5, and Faith, 3, on weekdays. But, since she was sick, her father kept them at his Hendersonville home for the day.
“I’m convinced my children would have not survived if they were home with me,” Tanya said.
Dazed, Tanya stumbled around the neighborhood. She saw a familiar face, a Vanderbilt employee running past her. The woman was heading toward Sumner Academy which was just down the block, screaming she had to find her children. The school’s gym was the only area that sustained damage, and no children were injured.
Another neighbor began to cry when she saw Tanya.
“She told me she saw my car and knew I was home, and was afraid she was the one who was going to find me dead,” Tanya said.
Yet another neighbor, a young man named Brandon Thompson, gave her his flip flops and drove her away from the devastation due to fears more tornadoes might be coming. He dropped her off at the Belk department store in Gallatin, where she was immediately assisted by many kind strangers.
They pulled clothes off racks for her to change into, and gave her a hat to cover her matted hair. Tanya said someone washed her bloody feet, while another began combing glass, insulation and other debris out of her hair.
“They were fabulous,” she said. “I never really had time to get scared.”
Her husband, who works at LifeWay in downtown Nashville, was only able to drive to the end of the Vietnam Veteran’s bypass that leads to the outskirts of Gallatin. Roads were closed, power lines were down and cars from a local dealership were littered throughout the street. He abandoned his car and ran five miles to Belk to meet his wife.
“He didn’t understand the house was gone,” she said. “He kept trying to tell me about his job review he had that morning and I kept saying, ‘The house is gone! I don’t think you understand! It’s gone!’” she said. “We still joke about that.”
As Tanya retells her story for what must have been the hundredth time, a smile never leaves her face.
“I always thought losing everything you owned would be the worst thing in the world, but the tornado was probably the best thing that could happen,” she said. “It made my priorities change. I’d been working in the PCCU for 11 years; I was feeling burned out. I told my husband the week of the tornado that it may be time for a change.”
Now, Tanya wouldn’t consider being anywhere else—the first call she was able to complete was to the unit.
“I couldn’t get any calls out to find out about my kids, or to tell my husband, but I guess since I was calling a hospital, it went through,” Tanya said. “The next morning, before dawn, Karen Kohl had driven through three hours of traffic to get to me.”
Kohl, R.N., a PCCU nurse, came with a “survival crate” filled with four of everything that a family who lost all their possessions would need. Toothbrushes, sweat suits, underwear, file folders, you name it—Kohl had thought of it.
Later that day, another co-worker, Robin Singleton, R.N., came with suitcases and toys for the kids and chocolate
for Tanya.
“It’s blown my mind, the support we’ve received,” she said. “It just shows you the quality of the people who work here. Even a month later, they’re still there. They cook food for us, got us a washer and dryer, and even got scrubs donated for me.”
Efforts to recover possessions have basically been fruitless. The family was able to salvage a few pictures, but nothing more than that. Tanya was only disappointed that she couldn’t find her 3-year-old’s “blankie,” and her son’s toy soldiers.
“My daughter keeps telling us that a ‘tomato’ hit our house,” Tanya says with a laugh. “Sometimes when I want to cry, she’ll say something like that and it makes me smile.”
The family is staying in their friend’s one-room log guest house in Goodlettsville until their insurance is settled. They will rebuild—but not on the same land. Tanya doesn’t want to test fate. The area has been hit by tornadoes several times in the past.
Just one week before the tornado struck, Tanya paid off a trip to Disney World for a family vacation planned for May.
“I worked six shifts to save up for this trip,” she said. “It’s been paid for and we are going. This will be so therapeutic for us—exactly what the doctor ordered.”
Tanya says it’s easy to maintain a positive outlook. She survived the storm, and that is all that matters to her and her family.
“It’s a miracle of God. There’s no reason I should be alive,” she said. “I don’t want to be whining and fussing—I need to make God proud.”