ATLANTA — The son who survived a tornado in Henry County just days ago, Malachi Chaney, took his first steps in the hospital Monday.
His father, Tray Chaney, said his son celebrated his 19th birthday in the Intensive Care Unit at Grady Memorial Hospital over the weekend.
“I always say he stood up toe to toe with a tornado and came out alive,” said the father.
He and his son were thrown from their Locust Grove home when a tornado touched down on their street last Thursday.
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“Walls are flying to my face, TVs, knives, everything you could possibly think of,” said Tray. “I’m levitating in the air. My mattress is flipping, and I wake up after being unconscious, and the first thing I’m screaming is my son’s name.”
Neighbors found his son in the wooded area near their home. Paramedics rushed him to Grady, where he’s still recovering from broken bones in his face and torso.
Nearly everything the family owned in the house was a loss.
“Everything’s gone. Everything’s wiped away,” said Tray.
Then, on Monday, a woman contacted Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco. She found one of the son’s keepsakes in her front yard, more than 10 miles away from Locust Grove.
“I couldn’t believe that just a single piece of paper made it this far,” said Peggy Ayers.
It was a high school honor society certificate with the name Malachi Chaney on it. Her niece, Connie Steele, did some digging online and connected it to the family who survived the Henry County tornado.
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“I just cried. I would love for them to have,” said Ayers.
She could not make the trip to give it to the family at the hospital. So, she passed it on to Channel 2 to bring to the father.
Tray Chaney was stunned when he saw the certificate. “Wow,” said the father. “This is, it’s touching, you know. This right here means the world because it’s his name.”
He pointed to the name written on the honor society document.
Channel 2 spoke with Ayers on the phone. “I’m so glad I got to talk to you, and thank you for finding something so valuable to my family and Malachi,” Tray Chaney told Ayers.
Ayers told the father, “I know he’s going to have some rough times, but let him know he’s in a lot of people’s prayers, and God answers prayers.”
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