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BOARDMAN -- Greg Steffey and his realtor were standing in the kitchen of his Mill Trace Drive home, discussing the open house.
Eight prospective buyers had just left as the July 5 thunderstorms moved in. His wife, Hope, decided to bring the dogs down to the basement.
Then. ...
"It sounded like a bomb," he said.
One oak tree at the back of his property was toppled by straightline winds, which reached more than 100 mph that day. It crashed into another oak tree about 30 feet up the backyard. That tree crashed into the roof right above the kitchen where Greg and his realtor were standing.
The couple are now homeless, out at least the $175,000 that they expected from the sale of the house. Their dream of buying an RV and traveling leisurely is almost as far away as the storm that wrecked it.
But sometimes storms begin long before the first cumulonimbus clouds roll in, before the first rumbling of thunder is even heard in the distance, before a single raindrop falls.
For the Steffeys, the destruction of their home was a devastating blow, but hardly the worst one they've taken this year.
A religious man, Steffey compares himself to Peter stepping out of the boat -- trying to keep his eyes on Christ while the storm threatens to pull him under. He admits anger. He admits frustration. But he keeps trying to believe there is still a purpose beyond what he can currently understand.
His full story reads a lot more like the Book of Job.
"I keep asking the Lord: 'what have we done?'"
JASMINE & HOPE
Last year, the Steffeys' daughter, Jasmine, and her boyfriend moved in with them. Jasmine was going through a very hard time.
On Oct. 3, she was rushed to St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital for a seizure. She was in a coma for two weeks. While in the hospital, doctors determined Jasmine was in liver and kidney failure.
"Unfortunately, a lot of that was due to her drinking. She had had a miscarriage a couple years ago, and that really kind of set her back. We weren't aware of how bad it had gotten until she moved in. Trying to hide it and stuff, but we saw it," Steffey said. "She had been to rehab, was clean for about two-and-a-half years, until that miscarriage."
Undergoing dialysis and in need of specialized care, Mercy Health would send Jasmine to nearby Select Specialty Hospital. Then she would deteriorate beyond what Select could manage and she'd end up back at St. E's.
In the midst of Jasmine's illness, Hope developed a severe eye infection. Local doctors could do nothing for her. So Greg had to take her to a specialist in Tallmadge three days a week. Even they nearly couldn't save the eye, and there is still a high likelihood Hope will need a corneal transplant, at a cost of about $25,000.
The risk of picking up a worse infection meant she couldn't visit her daughter at the hospital. So Greg continued on double duty. They would set up Facetime meetings for Hope and Jasmine.
"And I even have a video where Jasmine was feeling good and doing stuff, and she told my wife 'OK, Mom, I'm doing better, now it's time for you to go get your eye fixed.'"
For 137 days, Jasmine was in the hospital, with her dad by her side for 134 of them, for as many as 12 hours a day.
Then, on Feb. 16, Jasmine died.
A HIDDEN DISASTER
Through Hope and Jasmine's illnesses, mail piled up and medical bills piled up even faster.
The Steffeys' insurance renewal notice disappeared beneath the stack. Nobody noticed.
Never one to shirk personal responsibility, Steffey blames himself.
"We just, it was our fault, you know, we just didn't even think about it," he said. "We just had been letting the mail stack up. You know, Jasmine was getting at least five bills a day, medical bills. And it was our fault."
So when July 5 brought a small-scale tornado and even harsher macroburst with 100 mph winds, and dropped two trees on the Steffey's house, their plan for trying to recover from their daughter's death was decimated too.
"We knew that the house was going to sell fast. I mean, she (realtor) had two people that were highly interested on that day," Steffey said. "We're trying to maybe work something out with the realtor, about her purchasing the property, and she can do with it what she wants."
DESTRUCTION
The two trees had both recently been inspected. They were trimmed and deemed healthy.
When the winds drove them over, the root base of the tree in the back was roughly 12 feet or better. The company that cut the trees up and removed them from the yard is selling them for lumber, Steffey said.
The trees crushed the roof over the kitchen and subporch, where the Steffeys had just put in a new floor and new screen door. The other went through the peak of the roof and exposed the master bathroom to sunlight.
Rain poured into the home and has continued to do so in the month since, with the blue tarp now doing little to stop it. It does not matter. The floors are soaked, and mold has overtaken the interior. More pieces of the house continue to fall in every time the Steffeys are there.
A roofer hired by the realtor told Steffey it's a good thing they're not living there -- he didn't know what was keeping the roof up because every truss was broken through.
"It got to the point where I told her it's not safe to keep coming back to get anything else," Steffey said.
They saved about 50% of their belongings, including boxes and bags of family photos and home movies in the basement. The first thing Steffey ran toward in the immediate aftermath, once he got his legs back under him, was Jasmine's urn.
They live at the Davis Motel for now, in a room about 12-foot-square feet that costs $1,600 per month. It's the only place they've found that will let them keep their two dogs with them.
They have no place to cook, and eat restaurant food daily. Steffey said he's put on 15 pounds since the storm.
A GoFundMe drive has raised about $5,200. The Red Cross helped with about a week's worth of lodging expenses. Catholic Charities has offered to pay first and last month's rent on a new apartment, but almost none will accept the dogs.
One realtor brought them to a property where a very large tree was hanging over the house. They didn't even get out of their car to look at it.
Steffey sold his truck to get out from underneath an upside down loan. A farmer friend provided him with a loaner.
LIVING ON A PRAYER
The Steffeys are a faithful family, but Greg figures he's been pushed about as far as one man can be pushed this year.
Three weeks after the storm, July 26, was Steffey's 64th birthday. For as long as he can remember, Jasmine was the first to wish him happy birthday every year, staying up until 12:01 to send him a birthday message. That message didn't come.
"I'm 64 and I haven't cried this much in the first 63," he said.
The skin under his nose is raw. He keeps tissues with him at all times now.
"We're very religious. But my shoulders are full. I've never in my life been depressed, but it's like, you know, you put up your hands."
A cousin in the Canton area has been cleaning out her deceased father's house, and while it's in probate, she said the Steffeys are welcome to stay there. They may take her up on it.
In the interim, they keep waiting, hoping that what's next will somehow be better. Betting that it cannot get much worse.
"Life isn't fair, we know. But… we're listening. See what plan He has for us," Steffey said.
"We try to look at the positive," Hope said. "It could have been worse, nobody got hurt. It was our house and not our neighbor's. There are reasons to be grateful."