Twister Takes Father And Son's Home A Year After Wife's Death

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ROWLETT (CBSDFW.COM) - Walter Thrash was celebrating Christmas with family on Saturday when he heard a tornado had passed near his home.

"I said I better go check on the house, make sure it's still there... I was making a joke," he said.

He never imagined what he would find – his family's house destroyed.

He brought his 2-year-old son Nolan Tuesday to see what was left of it.

"We drove up, he said, 'House!' And I said, 'Yea, that's our house.;' And he said, 'Broken?'" recalled Thrash.

This dad is taking it all rather well.

"Cause really I've been through worse," he explained.

Last year, he and his wife were on a cruise to the Bahamas, when Brittany, 28, suffered a stroke.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter took her to shore, where she died.

"I got to see them lifting her off the boat and lifting her into the horizon," he said.

Losing a house doesn't seem so bad, except it was the house they shared.

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"I still don't think I've grasped the magnitude – of I'm not coming back to this house to live here," he said.

He's still looking for some cherished possessions, pictures of he and his wife on one of their first dates and her wedding ring. "But it's the people that matter," he said.

And with the person who matters most, his son, snuggled safely at his side, he said there's nothing to do, but move forward.

"You have to keep going. You don't have any other choice,"he said. Consoling his son over the lost house, he assured him, "We'll get another one."

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