Sunday, April 09, 2000
Tree a reminder of a boss who cared
The Tornado: One Year Later
Waitress Michele Antonelli of Blue Ash was having a bad day. A hard day's work compounded by a neck injury. Then a customer got rude.
She was visibly upset as she walked to her car in the Bob Evans parking lot on Pfeiffer Road in Blue Ash. Her manager came running out.
“What's wrong?” Charles Smith asked her.
She never forgot that. And never will.
“The best manager I ever had, he truly cared,” she said of Charles Smith, 40, of Loveland. Several years after that incident, Mr. Smith was driving on Interstate 71 to work when the tornado struck. He was one of four killed April 9, 1999. He left a wife and 5-year-old son.
On Thursday, Ms. Antonelli, 38, planted a 10-foot oak tree in the Johnson Nature Preserve in Mr. Smith's memory. When word got out that she was collecting donations from co-workers, the company picked up the cost ($150). The tree is next to a bench. A plaque is planned.
“I wanted something big and strong,” she said. “We're doing this for the people at Bob Evans, and something to watch grow.”
—Tom O'Neill
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Sense of humor turns overwhelmed to upbeat
Day of thanksgiving for those who helped
Disaster team helped, then quietly left
Lessons in the whirlwind
Memories of kindness ease memories of fear
More and better sirens expand storms warnings
Painting portrays sunflower rebirth
The graveyard of the trees
The roof went straight up, the house flew away
Tree a reminder of a boss who cared
Tornado of '99 archive
