Remembering the Stensons, victims of the 2019 Beauregard tornado
The last time she heard one of her parents speak, Krystal Garrett was going to pick up food for her kids and husband.
It was her mother, Florel Tate Stenson, on the other end of the phone. It’d been raining in Beauregard for a while then, and Krystal left the tiny east Alabama community earlier that morning to avoid driving through those showers.
“I told her I was going to talk to her later,” she said, recalling the conversation.
About 20 minutes later, her cousin called. Krystal learned none of the homes on that stretch of Lee County Road 39 were there anymore.
Her brother, Eric Jamaal Stenson Sr., her mother, Florel, and her father, Henry Lewis Stenson were three of 23 people who were killed when a powerful EF-4 tornado cut through Beauregard last year.
Henry was 65. Florel was 63. Eric was 38, and the family is still adjusting to life without the three of them.
Mr. Fixit and the matriarch
Henry and Florel’s love traces its roots back to their teenage years. Henry, born in the even smaller east Alabama community of Society Hill, courted the younger Florel. They married in the spring of 1977.
Henry spent his years as a United States Marine and retired as a truck driver. To those who knew him, he was the one who could fix nearly anything. He was “Mr. Fixit,” often doing work for friends and family who lived in the Tuskegee/Macon County area, Krystal said.
Florel was the matriarch of the extended family, revered for her advice and famous fried chicken. She was the cook of the family and her church. She worked as an office administrator at Auburn University for decades, Krystal said.
They birthed two children: Eric Sr. and Krystal.
Growing up, Eric Sr. was the kind of big brother who’d let his younger sister hang around, even when he started driving. He worked full-time at a Walmart distribution center in Opelika and part-time at Lee Russell Transit before the storm. He was the father of two teenage boys: Eric Jr. (now 18 years old) and Dillian (now 15 years old), Krystal said.
All of them were visiting Henry and Florel to go to church like they did every other Sunday.
The storm and the present
Krystal left Beauregard that Sunday morning to avoid the rain and storms that were supposed to come. Her home was about an hour and half away.
“I had no idea it was going to be storming as bad as it did,” she said. “I just didn’t like driving in the rain.”
She hugged Eric Sr., Florel and Henry, telling them she loved them before she got on the road.
Henry, Florel, Eric Sr. and the teenage boys went to church at Pine Level AME Zion Church in Hatchechubbee, about ten miles away. When they got home, they all ate some of Florel’s fried chicken, Krystal said. Then came the final call between Krystal and Florel. It was quick, and Krystal went on about her day.
A cousin called Krystal about 20 minutes later to tell her houses were gone and the roads were blocked off. Those in Beauregard had to run a mile or two to get to where the houses once stood. The boys were found injured but alive. Henry, Florel and Eric. Sr. were found a short time later.
The three Stensons were among 10 people killed in the storm bound together by blood, marriage or close friendship — they bore the last names Jones, Robinson, Stenson and Tate, according to the Opelika-Auburn News.
The family is still learning to live without their Mr. Fixit and the advice and fried chicken Florel once served.
The family replaced the home that once stood on Henry and Florel’s land. Trips to the church were a family tradition, and even after the deaths, it continues.
At least every other weekend, Krystal makes the trip to Beauregard to take Eric Sr.’s children to church. She and the boys stay in the new home.
On a recent Sunday when Krystal couldn’t make it, Eric Jr. found his own ride to a late Sunday service. He video chatted with Krystal, letting her know that he made it to church, she said.
“It made me so proud,” Krystal said. “Everything my mom worked so hard to instill in them — to stay in the church — is still in them.”
Krystal said she and the boys won’t be taking part in any one-year anniversary events. But they planned to attend church and place flowers on the graves of Eric. Sr., Florel and Henry the weekend before.
“Not a day goes by that you don’t think about every single one of them,” she said.