Loved ones of the two people killed in the May 10, 2024, tornado outbreak in Tallahassee will pay tribute to them in their own unique ways on the one-year anniversary of their deaths.
Family and friends of Harley Hart, a free-spirited 17-year-old, plan to go skydiving Saturday in Bonifay in her honor, said her dad, Daniel Hart.
Hart, who plans to jump with a group that includes Harley’s stepmother and older sister, said she mentioned wanting to skydive a couple of weeks before she died. But she wasn’t yet 18, the legal age in Florida.
“That’s one thing she wanted to do,” said Hart, who also went skydiving last year on her 18th birthday in August.
Hart and family members also plan to visit the Sandpiper Beach Resort, a place in Panama City Beach that Harley loved. In a couple of weeks, they will to travel to Tennessee to meet with the 35-year-old woman who got Harley’s heart in a transplant operation.
“We wanted to know whether she has a sudden craving for cheap macaroni and cheese,” Hart said, noting her daughter’s fondness for the kind in the blue box.
Meanwhile, family and friends of Carolyn Benton, a 47-year-old restaurant manager, are planning their own get-together, said her fiance, Ed Sutton.
“Just knowing that she was taken away on that day is something that we’ll never forget,” he said. “You can’t bring her back. But you can bring back some of the memories, the good times that you had, just honoring her because she was a really good person and she had a huge, huge heart for people.”
Both Benton and Hart were killed by large trees that toppled over in the freak storm that spawned three different tornadoes and 100-mph straight-line winds in Tallahassee, causing capital city devastation that eclipsed Hurricane Michael.
‘We had big plans’
Benton, a mother of three grown children, and Sutton were just getting up when the storm came upon their mobile home off Aenon Church Road.
Sutton stepped out of the bedroom to see what the commotion was outside when the power went out, prompting Benton to say her last words: “There goes the power.”
A big oak next to the mobile home fell onto the roof over the bedroom, crushing everything below. Sutton called out his wife’s name from an adjacent room, but she never answered.
They had been planning a happy life together, including their upcoming wedding. But the storm put an end to that.
“You know, we had big plans,” Sutton said in a May 5 interview.
Benton, a New Jersey native, grew up around Tallahassee, went to Rickards High School and worked at a number of restaurants over the years. A deeply religious woman, she had been helping a homeless couple before her death.
“I can’t fault nobody for it,” Sutton said. “Just that was the will of God. I acknowledge it and I accept it, because I am a firm believer. She was a firm believer in God. We know that his will must be done. When he calls for you, you gotta go.”
Father of teenager killed in storm focuses on good times
Harley, a “nonconformist” who grew up faster than most kids her age, was supposed to be staying with family the day the tornadoes hit. Instead, she was with a man in a tent in a wooded area off Idlewild Drive.
She suffered crushed bones and other catastrophic injuries when a tree fell on her. Nearby migrant workers were able to lift the tree off Harley, who later died at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare after donating her organs.
Her father said he still feels “hatred” toward the person she was with when the tree fell on her. But he said he tries to think about the fun times he had with his daughter.
“Me and her sister, we talk about it all the time, laughing, joking,” he said.
He said Harley’s organs went to people from Arizona to Louisiana. But he said the family is particularly interested in the recipient of Harley’s heart. In addition to the mac and cheese, they want to ask whether the woman ever has a sudden desire to run away, something Harley did often.
“We have a bunch of questions we want to ask her,” Daniel Hart said.
Victims families still touched by severe weather
The storms left their mark on the victims’ families in other ways. Hart said his family was once blasé about storms – but not anymore.
“We prepare for that,” he said. “We don’t sit around anymore like it’s going to bypass us.”
Sutton, who moved to a condo after his home was destroyed, said he’s traumatized every time bad weather strikes.
“It just makes me alert and afraid, especially when I know there’s a tree around close by,” he said. “I live alone. I have a friend I talk to every night. But I just hate to be alone when that bad weather comes around.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘We’ll never forget’: Families remember loved ones lost in last year’s tornadoes
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
