It was around 6 p.m. when the storm clouds rolled in. My brother’s wedding rehearsal was cut short as the first fat drops of rain began to fall, and we all scattered to bring the sound equipment and chairs back into Faith United Methodist Church in Waseca. We
raced the clouds to Torey’s Restaurant & Bar in neighboring Owatonna. Cocktail hour at the rehearsal dinner was off to a dramatic start with sideways sheets of rain, black skies and the distant wail of a tornado siren. The last of the waterlogged stragglers arrived, and we sat down with weather radar pulled up on our phones. Then the power cut out. Over the next hour, one of the most striking things I remember is how calm my brother Ethan and soon-to-be sister-in-law Katie remained. While the storm raged on around us, the pair continued greeting new arrivals and joking with friends. They
were each other’s ports in this storm. Their being together with family and friends was what mattered to them; plans going awry weren’t going to sway their outlook on th
