At least 24 people lost their lives in the devastating tornadoes that swept through four counties in Middle Tennessee earlier this week. Among the dead were husband and wife James, 84, and Donna Eaton, 81. They were found laying side-by-side on a mattress in their Mt. Juliet home, which was destroyed by the tornado.
The couple had been married 58 years and had lived in the Nashville suburbs for many years. Their grandson Jake Hardy-Moore said they were “best earthly example of what a marriage should look like.
“They showed Christ’s love and his sacrifice. They both loved our families through challenging times of life,” Hardy-Moore said. “They were the ones we looked to when times were difficult, and they kept us pointed toward God and to be dependent on God.”
“To know them was to love them. They carried with them a happy spirit, and their love for their church family was a model to all of us,” Pastor Phillip Dunn of the First Baptist Church of Mt. Juliet told the Tennessean. “To know that they were taken from us so quickly in a storm shocks all of us. We can also rest assured that Jim and Donna loved Christ and woke up with their faith becoming sight.”
Their funeral will be held at the church on Sunday.
Donald Trump visited the area on Friday. Earlier in the week he addressed the devastation from the storm.
“Before I begin, I want to send my warm wishes to the great people of Tennessee in the wake of the horrible and very vicious tornado that killed at least 19 people and injured many more,” Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday. “We’re working with the leaders in Tennessee, including their great Gov. Bill Lee to make sure that everything is done properly.”
“FEMA is already on the ground, and I will be going there on Friday,” he announced. “Our hearts are full of sorrow for the lives that were lost.
“It’s a vicious thing, those tornadoes,” Trump continued. “I’ve seen many of them during a three-year period and I’ve gotten to see the results, and they are vicious. If you are in their path, bad things happen, really bad things happen.
“We’ll be going, as I said, to Tennessee on Friday. We send our love and the prayers of the nation to every family that was affected. We will get there, and we will recover, and we will rebuild, and we will help them. Condolences. Tough, tough situation,” Trump concluded.
