Published: June 23, 2009 10:13 am      

Book tells story of May 3 survivor

It’s often the tough times that truly make a person, and Carolyn Stager went through about as bad as they come.

The day didn’t seem too desperate, but then the storms arrived and with them came Stager’s modern day Job story. In its destruction, she found her best laid plans forever changed by the May 3 tornadoes.

“Isn’t it amazing how we think we have our days in our lives all planned out? Too often, within the twinkling of an eye, everything changes,” Stager said during Monday’s meeting of the Midwest City Rotary Club. “That was the day that taught me that it wasn’t material possessions that defined who I was. Nor was it the way I looked, or how I wore my hair that made me who I was.”

Stager said she didn’t expect much from the storm when she first took shelter in a closet under the stairs in her Del City home with her seven-month pregnant daughter.

Then the funnel hit.

In it’s aftermath, both Stager and her daughter were left lying under the sky. They even said their good-byes. They would both make it through the ordeal but the unborn baby was tragically still-born.

Stager may have survived the night, but she was beaten. Her pelvis was broken and her head was “scalped” as patches of tissue were lost, exposing her skull. She was broken physically, emotionally and materially, but she fought through her personal storm.

“I choose to accept, with a heart of gratitude, that I was alive, and make the most of it,” Stager said.

She rehabbed from her injuries, and a doctor in Pittsburgh was able to reconstruct her head so that her hair would once again cover it.

What she sees as the most important result of the tragic events is the opportunity she now has to share God’s gift, which she does through speaking engagements, meeting with others and the publication of her book “Twist of Faith.”

She continues to work for the Oklahoma Municipal League, just as she did prior to May 3, 1999, and she is now the group’s executive director.

In the book, Stager recounts her experiences and the four years of therapy that followed. It can be purchased by e-mailing stickitinstones@yahoo.com or by calling 641-8292.

“We each go through many storms in life that makes us a better person, and also equips us to better assist others. If we never had to face adversity, we would never have the compassion for others that God expects us to have,” Stager said.