Tuscaloosa couple remember how April 27, 2011, tornado laid a strong foundation for their marriage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) - Twelve years ago, powerful tornadoes raked across Alabama, killing more than 250 people, many of them in Tuscaloosa. Like many of us, one Tuscaloosa couple will never forget that day - they were just weeks away from getting married.

Cullen and Bethany Smith were just two months away from getting married when the tornado hit Tuscaloosa. They still got married on schedule, but the storm did something that made them appreciate each other even more 12 years later.

When Cullen and Bethany look back on their wedding day in June 2011, they will always remember with humility and awe what happened two months before.

“For me knowing how severe it can be, I was a little naive thinking it will never come down my street,” said Cullen Smith.

It did come down Cullen’s street, destroying his home and his naivety about storms in general. Smith rode out the April 27th tornado at Bethany’s home in Northport, who was in the middle of planning a wedding, attending wedding showers and generally looking forward to a lifetime of marriage. Just one look, however, after the storm passed, crystalized a whole lot of things for the couple. Bethany, for example, let go of any notion of having that ‘perfect’ wedding.

“I remember walking away from the house, just seeing the devastation all around us. There were so many reports of loss of life,” said Bethany Smith.

Far more than she realized - more than 50 died in Tuscaloosa.

Twelve years later, Cullen and Bethany Smith came to realize the tornado prepared them for their marriage in ways they never thought possible, laying the foundation to handle storms that often come along in any marriage and in any life.

″It showed God will provide,” said Cullen Smith.

“And I think it allowed us to walk a difficult hardship together. We saw how we cope with things. It strengthened that relationship that much more that you’re thrown in something that was unexpected and you came out on the other side. It started our marriage on a different road than most people have an opportunity to have,” said Bethany Smith.

A road that started a little rough in the beginning has now become a solid foundation of strength and love much like the way Tuscaloosa bounced back from that awful day 12 years ago.

Here we are more than a decade later, Bethany and Cullen Smith are thriving with two children. They will cerebrate their twelfth wedding anniversary on June 25.

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