‘We’re able to share Hattie.’ Nonprofit honors daughter killed in 2020 Putnam County tornado
The nonprofit Magnolia Foundation helps pay funeral, burial, and cremation costs for children birth to eighteen.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - For the first time since they lost their daughter in the Putnam County tornadoes, a former youth pastor and his wife are talking about that night and their new mission to help other families through their darkest storms.
On March 2, 2020, everything changed for Matt and Macy Collins.
“When the storm hit, I grabbed Hattie, and Macy ran and grabbed Lanie from the crib,” said Matt. “And we held on to them the whole time.”
An EF-4 tornado ripped through their home, picked them up, and put them down in a neighbor’s yard. But the storm didn’t rip them apart.
“When our neighbors found us, we were still holding them,” Matt said. “Both of them.”
Lanie survived the traumatic event, however, 4-year-old Hattie did not.
She died in her father’s arms.
“We were in the hospital for a week after the storm,” Matt explained, as he described the physical scars from that night -- severe injuries to his arm and cuts to Macy’s head.
But there’s one thing that always makes them think of Hattie.
“Before the storm, I was driving along with Hattie and Lanie in the car,” Macy said. “And out of the blue Hattie asked me, she said ‘Mommy, are there Magnolia trees around here?’ So I thought, that’s kind of an odd question, because we’re not plant people, had never grown anything. We had no trees at our house at all.”
An anonymous donor had given burial plots to the family.
On the day of Hattie’s funeral, the Collins saw her gravesite for the first time.
“When we drove up, right around the gravesite, there were four magnolia trees.”
Now magnolias are woven through their everyday lives, and it’s the name of their foundation serving families who’ve lost a child.
The nonprofit Magnolia Foundation helps pay funeral, burial, and cremation costs for children birth to eighteen.
It also pays for five sessions of grief counseling for the family, and for what the couple calls commemorative care -- ongoing cards, gifts, and keepsakes to remember their child on special anniversaries and holidays.
“We mail them something to put in their hands, so they know there’s somebody out there who hasn’t forgotten,” said Matt.
It’s taken four years to talk publicly about the life snatched from them in that storm -- and one stunning conversation with Hattie the night the storm hit.
“We were doing our bedtime routine and just kind of out of the blue she said, ‘Mommy, I can see Jesus’,” Macy said. “I said ‘You can?’ She said ‘Um hum.’ What does he look like? And she said ‘He’s wearing all white.’ Then she rolled over and fell asleep. That was the last thing she said,” Macy said tearfully.
“That’s been a treasure for us to hang on to.”
“We needed that,” added Matt.
By doing work that honors their daughter, grief’s starting to lose its grip.
“We’ve said all along, that we feel like this is as close as we can get to her,” Macy said. “By sharing the Magnolia Foundation, we’re able to share Hattie.”
“Until we can hold her again, and we believe that we will,” Matt continued, “until then, we’ll hold her in this way.”
Click here to donate or refer a family to the Magnolia Foundation.
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