By Jan Landon
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Rod Bradley can finally look at photographs of what happened on May 4, 2007, in Greensburg, Kans. It has taken a while, but now he can thumb through books about the deadly tornado that leveled his hometown.

Rod and Shirley Bradley have found a new home and a new life at Tallgrass Creek in Overland Park. Oh sure, they will tell you with their quiet honesty, there are still some bad days. They are still adjusting. Like others, they are still trying to determine exactly how they fit in.

“We’ve come a long way,” Shirley Bradley says. “We’re realizing that our home is gone and we have a new home.”

Recalling tragedy
On a Friday night last May, the town in southwest Kansas was hit by an EF-5 tornado, the highest rating a tornado can receive. It was 1.7 miles wide, and in the 30 minutes it was on the ground, it traveled 22 miles, according to the National Weather Service. The tornado’s maximum winds were estimated at 205 mph. Eleven people died in Greensburg, more than 50 were injured, and 95% of the town was destroyed.

The Bradleys took refuge in the basement of the home of Rod’s sister. And when they came, physically unharmed, out of that basement—rescuers broke kitchen windows to get them to safety—everything they had known was gone.

But that was more than a year ago, and since then, there has been a change in this couple that has been together for more than 55 years. There are smiles and laughter, which were difficult to come by six months earlier.

“We have more to do,” Shirley Bradley says. “We’re happier.”

New home, new friends
Indeed, they have a new life at Tallgrass Creek. They have a comfortable apartment home full of new furniture. Rod Bradley has joined a local Rotary Club, and the couple has found a Methodist church to attend. Rod Bradley may join a barbershop quartet. Shirley Bradley is in the quilting club. As ambassadors for Tallgrass Creek, they meet and greet visitors at different  events.