‘We were one’; Man remembers his wife found dead after the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes – WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio

This Memorial Day, her husband Bob honors her memory.

Bob said he met Catherine at church.

“We went to church in Hartford City,” Bob said. “It wasn’t long before we became friends, let’s put it that way.”

The couple married and had two daughters.

They moved to Ohio and settled in Harrison Township.

Catherine loved the neighborhood.

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“She went for walks regularly… she walked around the neighborhood,” Bob said.

But at the end of 2017, Catherine became ill with dementia.

“She was coping, but there was no communication,” Bob said.

On Memorial Day 2019, Bob and Cathy planned to have dinner at their daughter’s house.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Catherine disappeared.

“She went for a walk and I didn’t know it,” Bob said.

He went looking for her but couldn’t find her.

Bob, family, friends and the police searched for Catherine.

Then, around 11 p.m., a tornado hit the Calyburn neighborhood.

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“We weren’t aware of it, we were just focused on them,” Bob said.

But days after the tornado, Catherine was still missing.

“Drones, helicopters, boats on the river, they did everything for Cathy. It was quite an emotional thing,” Bob said.

A dog team was called in to assist in the search and found her body a week after her disappearance.

The coroner determined that Catherine had drowned.

Bob said they found Catherine’s body under debris from the tornado in a dry creek bed next to a house near the Stillwater River.

“Why it was there, how long it was there, whether it fell or whether the storm came and debris knocked it over … I just don’t know,” he said.

Bob is still working on his recovery.

“Grief is a strange phenomenon and I’m not sure I’ve ever really grieved,” Bob said.

He said his family and his faith gave him the strength to carry on.

“I know I’ll see her again. I have no doubt about that,” Bob said.

When Catherine died, the couple was about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

“We were one. That’s all I can say. We were just one,” Bob said.