BELLE PLAINE, Minn. - Some things are just too big to wrap your head around.
Just before 4 a.m. on Tuesday the big unthinkable wakeup call came crashing down on Chris and Shirley Schmeckpeper.
"It sounded like a tornado coming thru there," Shirley said of the noise that came on her rooftop.
"I just heard wood break. I didn't hear the tree come down or anything I just heard crunch, crunch," Chris recalled.
The 50-year-old Maple tree split Chris and Shirley's trailer right down the middle, each of them were asleep in rooms on either side narrowly escaping.
"I don't give a care about the house I just wanted to make sure she was ok," Chris said talking about his mom Shirley.
Shirley, physically, was just fine but rattled emotionally by a painful reminder.
"Two trailers, that's telling me something," Shirley said.
In 1985 the family had a trailer a few lots down, it burned to the ground in an overnight fire killing Shirley's two oldest sons, James and Charlie.
"Not too good, that's why we don't like living in a trailer," Shirley said Tuesday night.
Picking up the pieces this time should come with a little less heartache, the entire neighborhood has already pledged to help in any way they can.
Small town graces for small town folk, with bad luck the size of any big city.
The house will unlikely be able to be saved but the home, it should stay intact.
The foundation is there.
"The kids and I got closer; help each other out when we need it," Shirley said.
And that cannot be taken away come fire, come wind come any punch nature wants to pull.
(Copyright 2012 by KARE. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)