"Even a tornado is no match for true love!"

When the engagement ring he'd bought was swept away in a tornado, Dakota Hudson thought it was gone forever. But thanks to an outpouring of love from the community, the ring is now on his beloved's finger

- Bill Holton

"Dear Lord, please make it stop!" Lauren Patterson prayed as she, her boyfriend, Dakota Hudson, and his dad, Tim, huddled together in Tim's bathroom. The tornado was passing directly over the Paris, Texas, home, and they could hear creaking and snapping. Suddenly, the entire house was lifted off the slab, then dropped back to the ground. Then everything went silent.

"It's over," Dakota said, and as the three left the house they emerged into a wide swatch of destruction including the new house Dakota was helping his dad build next door for his retirement.

After making sure all their neighbors were okay, the three returned to start their cleanup.

"I was finally going to be eligible for insurance next week," Tim sighed heavily, staring at his demolished dream house.

"It's like a broom swept everything away," Lauren, a 25-year-old nurse assistant, said, and a sudden chill ran down Dakota's spine.

A few weeks back, Dakota had purchased a beautiful engagement ring-he was waiting for just the right time to propose to Lauren. In the meantime, he'd stowed the ring in a closet in his dad's new house-the one that now lay strewn across the neighborhood!

"I have some bad news," he told Lauren, his eyes brimming with tears.

"What could possibly be worse?" she asked, and when Dakota told her about the lost engagement ring, she hugged him. "I don't care about a ring. I care about you. We're alive and safe."

Needle in a haystack

The next day, the trio, friends and relatives began clearing the debris. "I found this," Lauren's cousin, Paige, held up the top of a ring box. Hoping the ring might be nearby, the group scoured the area. But no luck.