OPELIKA, Ala. -- Brooke Waldrop was among several people who had returned here to a field of destruction on Lee Road 38. Three days after a powerful EF-4 tornado swept through the town, causing mayhem and destruction, she found herself searching through belongings that had been reduced to a pile of rubble.

Her stepfather Marshall Lynn Grimes, 59, was one of the 23 people killed by the tornado and she was determined to find Grimes' leather vest labeled with a large patch on the back that read Christian Motorcyclists Association. Waldrop said he would often wear it when he went riding on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. Amid devastation and debris that stretched as far as the eye could see, the task seemed impossible.

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“Every time he was on his bike he had that vest on,” said Waldrop. "That’s the main thing that we’re searching for.“

Waldrop was determined to retrieve that vest so her family could put Grime’s beloved vest in a shadow box ahead of his funeral. He is one of at least three people Waldrop knew who would be laid to rest in the coming days. Lynn’s fiancé, Sheila Creech, 59, his daughter Kayla and her best friend Taylor Thornton, 10, were all together when the tornado struck. Kayla was the sole survivor.

“She’s a miracle to be alive.”

The 10-year-old was in a nearby hospital recovering from multiple injuries she sustained from the force of the tornado, including a broken tibia bone, femur bone, ankle and some swelling around her left eye. Kayla still has no idea that her father, soon-to-be stepmother and her best friend were all gone.

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“We haven’t told her yet,” said Waldrop as she explained why her family decided to refrain from telling Kayla about the deaths of people she loved. “With all her surgeries and everything that she’s had going on and trying to get her oxygen levels contained, heartbeat and all that...we haven’t been trying to put a whole lot of stress on her.”

She said the family would try to break the news to Kayla before her father’s funeral today so she could at least watch the service via video chat from her hospital room.

Grime’s Facebook page is full of pictures of him, Kayla, Taylor and Creech. In almost all of them, they’re smiling.

“Truly blessed,” Grimes wrote on one picture of him and Kayla smiling.

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A post on Waldrop's Facebook page later appeared to show a man holding up the vest she had been looking for.

“I cannot express enough how amazing our community is,” Waldrop wrote on Facebook. “It’s amazing how awesome the Lord is! I am beyond grateful”