handout

For The Washington Post

Virginia Oliver

Two women from the shoulders up are back to back. The woman on the left wears a gray shirt and frowns. The background behind her is dark blue, and there are lines above her depicting stressful thoughts. The woman on the right wears a purple shirt and is smiling. The background behind her is yellow and there are sparkles around her head.

The Washington Post

inspired-life-positive-news

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

‘Look at the U.S.A.’: A photographer’s reflection on post-9/11 conflict

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

In photos: The scene after tornadoes struck Michigan and Oklahoma 

Nats go over .500 the hard way by beating the O’s and Corbin Burnes

These Nationals are pretty fun. They’d be more fun with James Wood.

Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

The crisis Biden and Trump don’t want to deal with

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

Defense think tank MITRE to build AI supercomputer with Nvidia 

Biden back in the battleground state of Wisconsin

In court, Stormy Daniels pulled a Trump on Trump 

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

Carolyn Hax: Family pushes siblings to ‘make amends’ after their mother’s death

Miss Manners: I’m offended by a golfer’s skirt choice

Ask Amy: I want to be closer with my brother. He never reaches out to me.

Social Security has to be fixed. But you still need your own savings.

An I bond is now at 4.28 percent. Are they still a good deal?

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

Serve seared scallops on a creamy herb sauce for a quick, elegant meal

Seared Scallops With Creamy Herb Sauce

From a forgotten Indian cookbook, a deeply flavored chickpea curry

Arrested U.S. soldier was in Russia to pursue girlfriend

Middle East conflict live updates: WHO says health services in south Gaza will run out of fuel in three days

U.S. signals optimism for Gaza cease-fire as Israel moves into Rafah 

Cruise worker charged with stabbing 3 with scissors on ship off Canada

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

US-VOTE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-BIDEN

Hope Tomkins

Hope Tomkins lost almost everything in a tornado that destroyed her Iowa home in 2008.

“When we got to our house, there were three walls left standing,” said Tomkins, who was about 30 miles away in Iowa Falls when the tornado tore through her community in Parkersburg. “It was indescribable.”

<a href="https://www.weather.gov/media/dmx/SigEvents/2008-05-25_ParkersburgServiceAssessment.pdf" target=_blank>The deadly tornado</a> — which packed 205 mph winds — left dozens injured and killed nine people, including five of Tomkins’s neighbors.

She lost most of her possessions. One that particularly stung was a photo of Tomkins’s grandparents on their wedding day in 1942, which Tomkins had proudly displayed in her living room.

“It was one of my most prized possessions,” she said. “I lived with my grandma and grandpa for a long time growing up. I have a lot of great memories.”

But nearly 16 years after the photo vanished with the wind, she got it back in what felt like an enormous stroke of luck.

Longtime cobbler posts meticulous shoe repair videos, becomes sensation

Tomkins was scrolling through Facebook on Jan. 22, when she stumbled upon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/parkersburgia/posts/787924756713429?ref=embed_post" target=_blank>a post from the City of Parkersburg</a>.

“Does anyone recognize this couple? One of the many unclaimed tornado items from over the years,” the post — which included a timeworn photo of a young couple — said. “Cleaning out the closet at city hall and we found this! Let’s see if we can locate the family of the couple in this photo!”

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I know them!’” she said.

Within fifteen minutes of the photo being posted, Tomkins commented: “That is my Grandma and Grandpa.”

She was floored by the finding, which was first reported by <a href="https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/priceless-reunion-parkersburg-family-recovers-photo-lost-during-2008-tornado" target="_blank">Iowa’s News Now</a>.

“I was in so much shock when the picture popped up,” she said, adding that she immediately called the Parkersburg City Hall to let them know the photo was hers. She also phoned her mother, Marcia Mull, whose parents are pictured. Mull was equally stunned.

“I could not believe it,” said Mull, 76, who lived in Quarry, Iowa, when the tornado hit. She moved with her husband to an assisted-living facility in Parkersburg about a year ago, across the street from City Hall. She went right away to claim the photo.

Fans root for bald eagles determined to shield eggs from California storm

“It’s in very good condition, considering all the stuff it went through,” Mull said. “I have never found another wedding picture of them before.”

Family photo

Chris Luhring, Parkersburg City administrator, is the one who posted about the long-lost photo. He found it in a box of old items from the tornado that had been unclaimed.

“I just could not get rid of it,” said Luhring, whose aunt died in the tornado.

“Not only do you lose people, but you lose priceless artifacts,” he said. “I felt like I possessed a treasure.”

After the tornado, the city set up a lost and found center, he said, and people brought in items they found strewn around in the wreckage.

“We had thousands and thousands of things that had been recovered, and people turned things in from hundreds of miles away,” Luhring said.

Rachmaninoff’s last living piano student lives in Pa. She’s 99.

That’s how the wedding photo landed in the city’s possession. Although Tomkins visited the lost and found on several occasions, she said, she never spotted the image of her grandparents, Maxine and Raymond Randall — both of whom grew up in Quarry.

“They met, fell in love and got married,” said Mull, who is the eldest of her three siblings.

Her parents had a no-frills wedding, she said, adding that her mother wore a black dress because it was the only one she had. Their ceremony was at a local church, and there were just two people in attendance.

Mull’s father was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II, shortly after the wedding, and was stationed in Normandy. He came back to Iowa in 1945 and worked at an appliance company for 33 years.

“We had a happy childhood,” Mull said, noting that her parents had a loving marriage. Her father died in 1984, and her mother died in 2007. They were adored by their 11 grandchildren, including Tomkins.

She, nor her mother, expected to ever see the photo again.

“We were so thankful that we did get it back,” said Mull, adding that they’re planning to get it restored. They will also have several copies made.

Luhring was glad to be able to get the photo back where it belongs.

“I’ve got a million stories from the tornado that are not good,” he said. “It’s nice to have this one.”

Mull and her daughter couldn’t agree more.

“Don’t give up hope of finding treasures,” Mull said. “It might be 15 or 20 years, but somewhere down the line, it could happen to you, too.”

McGill University, BA

Columbia University, MS in journalism 

Sydney Page is a staff reporter who writes for The Washington Post’s Inspired Life section, a collection of stories about humanity. She has been a contributor to The Post since 2018.

Sydney Page

washpost

the-washington-post

name

prism://prism.query/site,/lifestyle/inspired-life?limit=20

Inspired Life

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/lifestyle&limit=20

Lifestyle

Washington Post Lifestyle gives you the latest fashion and beauty trends, home d&eacute;cor pointers, food and recipe ideas and reviews, relationship advice, travel ideas, wellness tips and much more.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.