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A severely injured 7-year-old girl lost her 9-year-old sister in the tornado that hit Missouri earlier in 2021.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump took action over Christmas to help lift her spirits by sending two large boxes of presents.
The heartbreaking story out of Missouri made national news when a photograph was taken of 9-year-old Annistyn Rackley who was holding her favorite doll in the bathtub next to her sister. The photo was texted by the girl’s mother and sent to their Aunt Sandy.
15 minutes later, a storm raged across the state and hit the windowless bathroom where the girls were in their “safe space.”
The tornado splintered the home.
Her surviving sister, 7-year-old Avalinn, told doctors that she “flew around in the tornado.” 9-year-old Annistyn was one of dozens killed across five states. She was only a third-grader who loved swimming, dancing and cheerleading.
First responders found the family dozens of yards away in a field where they were in the mud. The other family members were injured but survived.
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Avalinn Rackley was videoed by her grandmother, Pam Moore, with two large boxes of presents just weeks after the child lost her older sister and best friend Annistyn in the storm that also critically injured her mother and destroyed her home in Caruthersville, Missouri on December 10.
“These boxes came in the mail, and they are from… President Trump! Both of these boxes. Can you believe it?” Moore tells Avalinn who squeals and smiles in delight.
“Oh my God! No, I can’t!” the little girl screamed happily looking at the boxes. She was wearing a back brace and matching Christmas onesies with her dad, Trent Rackley. Both her dad and younger sister, Alana, suffered minor injuries.
“Donald and Melania Trump sent a package! They got hats signed by Donald Trump, Presidential blankets, American Girl Dolls, books signed by President Trump and Melania, pens, bracelets and so much more!” Moore excitedly declared on Facebook Christmas Day.
Avalinn’s mom, Meghan Rackley, is still slowly recovering from severe brain trauma she suffered during the tornado, according to the Daily Mail. She finally woke up from a coma and was able to say her mother’s name.
“It made my momma heart so happy to hear her say my name. She is such a strong fighter. She is going to continue to improve each and every day,” Moore commented on December 23.
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Hooker called Annistyn Rackley a “special angel,” recalling the girl as outgoing and energetic despite a rare liver condition that required regular doctor’s visits. Hooker teaches gifted students at the same elementary school where Meghan Rackley teaches kindergarten in Caruthersville, which is nestled next to the Mississippi River in what’s known as Missouri’s Bootheel region.
Hooker’s account of what happened to the Rackleys came from talking to law enforcement and first responders who were at the scene after the tornado and found family members in the field. Hooker also said she talked to the girl’s father.
“Their house is splintered,” she told The Associated Press during a telephone interview. “There’s debris strewn forever out in the field, and so they were sucked up into the tornado.”
Tornadoes also roared through both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the St. Louis area, as well as the Memphis, Tennessee, area and parts of Arkansas and Illinois. A candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, and an Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, were hit.
West of St. Louis, 84-year-old Ollie Borgmann, described as a sweet and “typical grandmother,” died at a hospital after a tornado on Friday blew the Defiance, Missouri, home she shared with her 84-year-old husband, Vernon, off its foundation.
In Pemiscot County in southeastern Missouri, bordering Arkansas and Kentucky, where the Rackleys live, the sheriff’s office did not immediately return telephone messages Monday seeking comment about the storm that destroyed the Rackleys’ home. Gov. Mike Parson’s office said that about 30,000 Missouri residents initially were without power.
