DEGONIA SPRINGS, Ind. - Cheryl Warren and her husband, Jeremy, refused to take the land from her grandparents' estate. They insisted on paying for it.
The coupled wanted to earn and appreciate the plot of hillside land east of Boonville, Ind. The plot had been in the family for more than half a century, and the pair wanted to keep that legacy.
They placed their mobile home there and built a garage.
Their son, Isaac, 4, would play on the grass. Jeremy would tinker on antique tractors and a rusted-out Dodge he hoped to restore. Cheryl debated with herself names for the couple's unborn child.
"Jeremy and Cheryl, they loved that property. They fell in love with it," said Frank Folsom, Cheryl's uncle. "My
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mother and dad would have loved it. This would have made them so happy."
Their plans - and lives - ended suddenly Sunday morning when a tornado ripped through their home. Where a front porch stood, three orange crosses on Monday marked the places where the family spent its last moments. Their back porch somehow survived and provided a gathering place for friends and neighbors to share news.
Doctors delivered the stillborn Elaina Faith Warren by Caesarean section after Cheryl's death. The mother and daughter will be buried in the same casket either Thursday or Friday. "Everything they had is gone, including their lives," said Folsom, who came from his home in Atlanta to be with his family.
Even so, friends and family described the Warrens as a good, Christian family. They had just returned from vacation in July and were looking forward to the new child next month.
"I loved her very much," said Cheryl's aunt, Judy Creek of Chandler, Ind. "She was just a very sweet lady, a good Christian lady and a good mother."
Jeremy, too, is remembered as an excellent father who would include his son in everything he did. He would sometimes pick up Isaac - who bore the affectionate nickname Puglsey, after the "Addams Family" character - after his shift as a truck driver.
"Jeremy was always just a real nice person, too - soft spoken," said Brenda Powers of Boonville, who had provided day-care services for Isaac since he was 6 months old. "They treated me like family," she said. "Cheryl was really a sweet, outgoing person who would do anything she could for anybody. She always had kind things to say about people."
After studying at the University of Southern Indiana, she worked for almost a decade as a dental assistant for Boonville dentists Drs. Phillip and Jeffrey Kolb.
"She was a very good, very kind and caring person," said Phillip Kolb. "She was very popular with all our staff and patients. We're going to miss her."
So, too, will her church family at Mount Olive General Baptist Church, where the family attended services, said the Rev. Ken Slater.
But it was the moments shared with family that survivors said they will remember. Cheryl frequently would visit flea markets and antique shows with her mother and sisters, picking through relics for deals or gifts. Sometimes, she would find things for Jeremy, who was a mechanic at heart and loved his antique and vintage cars.
The Dodge Charger, which Jeremy planned to restore, lay battered near the site Monday. He recently had given parts of the green car a coat of primer, the first step to making it shine again. Neighbors said it was picked up and lifted by the tornado. No skid marks were under its tires. Instead, the fierce winds lifted it, spun it around and put it back down yards away.
- Philip Elliott and John Lucas
