TUSCALOOSA, AL (WBRC) -
The corner of Tuscaloosa's Hackberry Lane and 15th Street is slowly being re-built. Behind the devastation of 2011 came a miracle- and as Liv Nixon eyes her 100th birthday come December, she says there's only one reason she's with us.
"I think the only thing that did it was the good Lord... I really do," Nixon said.
As the April 27 tornado approached, Liv Nixon didn't pay it much attention- you see, the first tornado she survived came in the 1930's. Her mom ushered her underground into the family pit.
"I got tired of that as a child, so I said, 'I'm not going to do that,'" she said.
When I arrived here at 2019 Hackberry Lane just after the tornado struck, I found Liv Nixon being escorted from the scene- and I soon found out she was not only very spry, but also very opinionated.
Here's a portion of the piece I did last April:
It was late on Wednesday afternoon and a woman named Liv Nixon decided to read the paper and relax. But this wasn't any ordinary woman- this was Liv Nixon:
"A year from December I'll be a hundred year sold. What do I think of that? I'm thinking of making it to a hundred- what'ya know!" Nixon said.
[Click here to see the original story on Liv Nixon from April 2011.]
Of course every tornado survivor has her own story, and the incredible story of Liv Nixon spans nearly a century.
Liv Nixon was born in Northport December 28, 1912. She spent years in this house, as her father ran a feed and seed company.
"We had plenty of vegetables and peaches in the yard. Of course, father thought it was for switches for us," Nixon said.
She attended the University of Alabama and in history class sat next to a man named Paul Bryant, a young man who had a penchant for propping his feet on his desk:
"The professor came and said, 'Get that foot off that table.' Bear Bryant jumped and he did and he behaved in that class," she recalled.
Soon after obtaining her degree in physical education, Liv married an Auburn man, and well, it didn't work out:
"I wanted to kill him- and since I wanted to kill him I thought I'd better get out," she said.
So Liv Nixon sent the husband packing, and after living alone for 53 years, Liv Nixon survived April 27, 2011 thanks to some help from the neighbors:
"We were frantic, looking around and helping people. I looked up and she came out of the door and there was nothing left up there," Kristen Stockdale, Nixon's neighbor, said.
"I went to the door and opened the door and someone was coming up," Nixon recalled.
"We flagged down a four-wheeler that was coming around the corner," Stockdale remembered.
"A double motorcycle thing came out- I call it a double, I don't know what you call those big fancy things," Nixon said.
Stockdale continued, "My boyfriend said 'Miss Nixon, I'm going to have to put you on this four-wheeler. Is that OK?"
"He said, 'Have you ever ridden a motorcycle, and I said no, but if you put me in there I'd try. They told me how to hold and do, and they drove 20 miles with me," Nixon said.
Liv spent the night at Kristen's parents' house and soon thereafter found a home at Merrill Gardens Retirement Community.
"It was only by the grace of God, and for some reason, He's not done with her," said Stockdale.
And you know something? Liv Nixon agrees the Lord is on her side.
"That's the way I look at it: 'Liv, I must not be ready for you'," she said.
Despite a recent fall that broke her pelvis and shoulder, Liv Nixon motors on- and shows us all that with a little moxie and lots of faith, life can be almost perfect:
"I'm not perfect... close to it Liv!" she said.
Copyright 2012 WBRC. All rights reserved.
Liz Nixon recounts her story of surviving the April 27 tornado while sitting on her couch in her apartment.
The apartment where Liz Nixon lived in Tuscaloosa until the storm.
Liz Nixon being helped out of her apartment by a neighbor.
Nixon's neighbors helped take her out of the storm damaged area on a four-wheeler.
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