A father of a four-year-old girl, who died during last week’s tornadoes, has shared a heartbreaking post about his daughter’s death.
Matt Collins, from Tennessee, has revealed how his daughter died after the Putnam County tornadoes hit on March 3.
Four-year-old Hattie was one of the five children who were killed in the Putnam County tornadoes. The tornadoes killed 24 people in total and destroyed 500 homes and businesses.
The father revealed they were woken up after a tornado alert and he woke Hattie up and ran to pick his other daughter, Lainey, up who was asleep in her crib.
The father wrote: “Everything was collapsing and going up around us. I was yelling as loud as I could. I don’t remember what I said or even if what I said were words at all, but my yells were pleads for my girls to hang on.”
“The four of us were relocated by the storm to somewhere around our front porch, we think. We were in the dirt, in the crawl space, but together.”
The father held onto his daughter and ‘never let her touch the ground’.
Their neighbors, Kory and Lauren Farmer, heard their screams and managed to locate them.
His wife was holding Lainey and he was holding Hattie. The neighbors called an ambulance but Hattie had already died.
He added: ‘Every interaction we had that night was with God’s people. Words do not do justice for how we feel for Hattie.”
“The pain is unbearable at times, and present all the time. We have also been overwhelmed with love and support from all over.”
The father told Hattie always loved being held and before the tornadoes hit, she said: ‘Mommy, I can see Jesus and he is wearing all white.’
The father said she already knew Jesus was going to hold her that night and the parents believe God has not taken their girl from them but is holding their girl for them.
‘And Hattie loves to be held’, he concluded.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family raise funds to restart their lives.
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