A Missouri mother who survived a deadly tornado in Iowa is speaking out about her path to recovery after she lost her own mother, her husband and two youngest children in the devastating storm.
Kuri Bolger survived the brutal disaster alongside her eight-year-old son, Brysen, her stepfather and her brother.
The storm was rated by the National Weather Service as an EF-4, with peak winds coming in at 170 mph (274 kph) and leaving the longest path of destruction – 70 miles (113km) since a 1984 tornado carved a path of 117 miles (188km).
In an interview with Good Morning America, the 33-year-old mother described the challenges she and her only remaining child have faced as they attempt to forge a path forward without the rest of their immediate family members alive.
“I think there’s going to be really hard days and days that it’s a little bit easier, but just remembering that you just have to keep going,” Ms Bolger told the ABC morning show.
The young mother described how key to her own personal recovery has been the support she’s received from within her Blue Spring, Missouri community. That and her eight-year-old son.
“I have Brysen,” she said. “Thank God he made it through and everybody was able to save him because, at this point, he’s my rock.”
The Bolger family had gone to Winterset, Iowa on 5 March to visit the children’s grandmother, Melissa Bazley, and their stepfather.
Just the day before the tornado ripped through the midwest town, the family had spent the day at an alpaca farm taking in the great outdoors, a recreational activity that Ms Bolger says she and her husband relished in every chance they found.
“My husband, he did everything for everybody else because quality time with people was like what he had to give. That was really special about him,” she said during her interview with ABC about her 37-year-old husband, Michael.
Ms Bolger, who was only released from hospital last Friday for the treatment of her broken pelvis and broken leg, was on live television this week sharing candid memories of her young family and the life they lived together before they were tragically torn apart.
Describing her two youngest children, two-year-old Owen and five-year-old Kinlee, she smiled as she characterised the two toddlers’ “sweet” and “kind” nature.
“[Kinlee] just always really cared about other people before herself, which was a lot coming from a five-year-old,” Ms Bolger said of her eldest daughter.
For Owen, she said she’d never seen a more “fearless” two-year-old and that she frequently received compliments on his manners.
“Everybody always told me, ‘I’ve never met a more polite two-year-old.”
Just hours before the storm hit, her mother had completed a group workout with Bolger.
“She was just a bright light in everybody’s world,” Ms Bolger said of her 63-year-old mother.
Because of the injuries that Ms Bolger suffered, her community was quick to swarm around her in support. Within days, the GoFundMe that the family’s friend, Kayla Nutt, set up had already received more than $500,000 (£378,700) - more than double the fundraiser’s original goal of $250,000 (£189,360).
Support from her community, Ms Bolger says, has been part of what’s kept her and her now only son going when the reality of what happened to her has seemed too bleak to fathom.
That and keeping the memory of her young family alive.
“I’m going to keep pushing forward and keep being that person to try and inspire them to be better versions of themselves,” the 33-year-old told Good Morning America. “I’m going to try and carry their lights out.”
