VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — When we first met Toni Cortellini, she said in her wildest nightmares she never would have thought a tornado would take her home in Virginia Beach.
Sure enough, on April 30, 2023, an EF-3 tornado did take her house and many others.
Drone 10 video showed the devastation of one of the homes most heavily damaged on Haversham Close in the Great Neck neighborhood across from Cox High School.
Fortunately, the Cortellini family was not home at the time. They were visiting other family members when the tornado hit.
One year ago, 10 On Your Side found Toni Cortellini holding a family picture.
“I realized earlier today that on my dresser table, I had a picture of my family, and the one picture I always put jewelry on that I wasn’t wearing,” she said. “My husband found it today. It’s a keepsake and it means so much.”
A year later, she’s in her home, in the middle of the new kitchen, speaking with someone helping with the logistics of building a new house.
Her husband, Charlie, introduced her.
“This is Toni, she designed all of this,” he said. “She’s the brains behind it, and I’m the muscle.”
There’s a new foundation, brand new home and a new kitchen where Toni Cortellini can see everything going on with two children and their families, which include four grandchildren.
“I can see outside, the pool and everything,” she said. “I can cook and see them because that’s what I do. I cook. They watch. They eat,” she said with a laugh.
They are living through one of the great challenges in their 47-year marriage. And make no mistake, things are still not OK.
10 On Your Side asked Toni Cortellini whether the disaster of a year ago allowed her to create a new, better home.
“It’s different,” she said.
Why is she not accepting the word ‘better,’ that she is creating a better home? The answer goes to the reality of what the Cortellinis and many others are going through.
“Because I really look at what we had before the memories and stuff,” she said, wiping away tears from her face.
Memories and stuff — 47 years of stuff, and love of home, and all it was, that great old home of hers.
“We raised our kids here,” she said. “Sure, I am still emotional about it.”
What about making new memories in the new home?
“That’ll be an adventure,” she said. “We’ll see how that goes. My grandkids, it helps a lot to have them. They did the whole thing with us. We were with them the night of the tornado. So having them now come here and making these new memories, I think will be good.”
One thing’s for sure, their rental house does not feel like home. We asked on a scale of 0 to 10 how bad an experience has this been.
“Zero is the worst? Like, a 10,” she said. “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. On the other hand, nobody got hurt. Nobody got killed, our dogs were rescued, and that meant a lot.”
She also has a wonderful laugh, letting us know the tears are ruining her makeup, she said with a laugh.
“The tears really ruin my make up here,” she said. “I just don’t think you can ever fathom something like this, going through something like this.”
Toni Cortellini called it a different type of loss than losing someone.
“It’s a different type of feeling,” she said, “and it’s like everything’s been sucked away from you. Your stability of being in your home. You’re suddenly misplaced. You don’t have that [home] anymore.”
In the next room, her husband talked about how difficult this has been for her.
“I think that the home is her domain, OK? For mothers, they make a home,” he said. “They pick out the paint, they pick out the knick-knacks … and so for her, I think it was truly a larger loss. It’s a loss for me and traumatic, but I think it’s exponentially so for her.”
The Cortellini family hopes to move in June 6, although Charlie Cortellini makes it clear that might not happen.
Tough times remain, and they haven’t gotten over it even a year later.
It’s tough work — and a struggle.