Faith is key to life after tornado for DeKalb nurse

Ten years ago a tornado in northeast Alabama took up Regina Webb’s life, turned it upside down and left her broken body on the ground amid the scattered remnants of her home. Paralyzed from mid-chest, she could still feel God’s presence, however. Later, during a dark moment of recovery, Webb prayed that God would never leave her. Immediately Webb felt arms wrap around her. For just a second she thought it was her husband, Randy, but quickly realized it was God who had her in “His grip.”
    
With the strength and warmth of that “embrace,” Webb picked up the pieces and, a decade later, has embraced life as never before. Still paralyzed, Webb, 34, gave birth to girl triplets Jan. 7. They arrived 11 weeks premature and weighed in at less than three pounds each, but they are now home, healthy and big enough to fill their mother’s embrace.
   
“It’s wonderful,” said Webb. “It’s kind of hard for me to grasp that I had three babies.”
Almost exactly 10 years before the triplets’ expected due date, on Palm Sunday March 27, 1994, Webb was sleeping at her home in Grove Oak after working a 12-hour night shift as registered nurse at the hospital. Meanwhile, her husband headed off to the church where her father had served as pastor three miles away.
   
Around 11:30 a.m. Webb awoke to the sound of a rushing train and knew it was a tornado. The last thing she remembers was heading for cover in the bathroom. When she regained consciousness she was in her yard, some 75 feet from where she had been, with rain falling on her face.
   
She wasn’t in pain, but she could move only her right arm. Oddly, also littering the yard were the Webbs’ washer, dryer and bathtub.
   
As a nurse, Webb knew she was paralyzed, although she hoped it was temporary. “I prayed, ‘Dear God, if it’s Your will, just take me on home.’”
   
She’d fractured her legs, her shoulder and ribs, punctured her lungs and severed her spinal cord, an injury resulting in permanent paralysis. But she would survive.
   
“It makes a tremendous difference that I have a wonderful Christian husband who was right there saying, ‘We can do this.’” The Webbs had been married only a year and a half at the time of the tornado, but Randy never lost heart over their losses. “If he did, I never knew about it,” Webb said.
   
Webb went to rehabilitation, normally a 10- to 12-week course that she accomplished in just three weeks out of determination to quickly resume an independent life.
   
Their home demolished, the Webbs moved in with her parents for a couple of months, a frustrating move for the formerly self-reliant Webb. It was during that time that Webb was at her lowest and felt God’s embrace so strongly.
   
Soon the couple found a first-floor apartment, and Webb returned to work, transitioning into her current position as quality improvement/utilization review coordinator for DeKalb Baptist Medical Center.
   
Before the tornado hit, the Webbs were undecided about whether they should have children. But four years ago they started exploring the option through prayer. “I was real apprehensive about having children,” Webb said. She wondered if she could properly care for a baby from a wheelchair so she would pray: “God, do you want this to happen or not?”
   
Although the Webbs ruled out drastic intervention, they did consult fertility specialists, and Webb took fertility drugs.
   
On the day the couple found out they were expecting triplets, they went home and heard a chilling message on their answering machine: The plant where Randy had worked for the past several years was closing immediately. Insurance and medical benefits would curtail at midnight.
   
“Just when we thought we’d hit rock bottom and thought, ‘Oh, what are we going to do?’ we had to turn it over to God,” Webb said.
   
Webb was able to get insurance that covered pre-existing conditions through her job. When she was put on complete bed rest several weeks before delivering the triplets, Randy, no longer obligated to the workplace, was able to be at home to care for her. He also stayed at home to care for the triplets when Regina resumed work at the hospital.
   
“When we looked at it, we saw snapshots,” Webb said, “but God could see the big picture.”
   
Like most preemies, the infants spent some time in the hospital before being released. Emily Grace weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces; Alyssa Jean weighed 2 pounds, 8 ounces, and Lauren Olivia weighed 1 pound, 11 ounces, at birth. The girls were named after the couple’s mothers and a neighborhood child they adopted as their godchild.
   
A Christian since age 8, Webb and her husband are active members of Kellys Chapel Baptist Church in Grove Oak (DeKalb Association) and have ministered there in a variety of roles. Webb credits their church, parents and co-workers for their support.
   
Although her spinal cord was completely severed, Webb’s faith is intact and stronger than ever. “I think God left me here for a reason. You trust God, and when things aren’t going like you think they should be going, you trust that God has a plan and a reason for things.”