Cookeville Author Shares Her Tornado Journey With Book Event Friday

A Cookeville author will introduce her new book at a Friday release party, reflecting on the events of March 3, 2020.

Dr. Lauren Farmer survived the March 3, 2020 tornado that killed 19 people. She chronicles her journey in the book “After The Storm.”

“I really learned that a lot of people have not healed and have not confronted a lot of the things that I have done,” Farmer said. “So a big goal of writing this book and putting it out there for everybody else is to help others find the peace and closure that I’ve been working toward.”

Farmer said the Cookeville community was an inspiration not just for writing her book, but where she wanted to live her life. She will share more of her story Friday night at the Vertical Coffee from 6-9pm. The book is also now available from booksellers.

“I think the number one goal of this was to help myself heal,” Farmer said. “It was kind of a journaling process, writing everything that happened kind of the events leading up, the night of, and then afterwards, how we recovered. By writing it down I was able to see it from a different perspective, and then I talked to a lot of neighbors and friends and specifically my husband, and we worked through a lot of things that I had forgotten.”

Farmer said her career as a physical therapist turned into a career as an author as she tried to recover from the storm.

“I went from having a pretty normal, fulfilling life with everything I could ask for to an instant having nothing but myself, my husband, and two dogs,” Farm said.

Farmer and her husband rebuilt their home in the exact spot it stood before the tornado.

“We all knew Cookeville was a great place to live before the tornado, but I think afterwards it showed how resilient we are and how caring we are about each other,” Farmer said. “To be perfectly honest, that’s the whole reason we stayed in Cookeville, because neither my husband or myself are from here,” Farmer said. “But with the community coming together and just showing us so much love and support, it is really what anchored us here.”

Farmer will be selling and signing copies of her book at the release party. She said she will also be talking with people, and she will be bringing personal items that made it through the tornado, like her wedding dress, to the event.