TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) - Six weeks after the April 27th storms, Dorothy Scarbrough stepped out of her Forest Lake home to take a picture of what remained of 15th Street. However, Scarbrough took a wrong turn, confused, and arrived at an unrecognizable street. At her feet was an open book, covered in sand and dirt. When Scarbrough realized it was a bible, she felt compelled to pick it up and see if there was any family history. A family tree was partially filled out and the bible was open to a chapter in the book of Job. Scarbrough says it was as though the bible opened to that particular story alluded to a lot of suffering. She decided at that moment she would take the bible with her and find it's owner.
"When you receive so many blessings, you want to bless others,"she explains. Scarbrough and her husband had been fortunate. Her home still stood in a neighborhood where many homes and been leveled by the storm. Scarbrough had also recently recovered from an illness that had made her blind for the past six months. She explains that her faith has led her to believe that God had been working in her life in a lot of ways, and finding the bible was another way.
She used the internet and telephone to look up the names of the people listed in the family tree. After an entire summer of searching, she figured out who the owner of the bible was, but there was no way to reach her.
On December 23rd, Scarbrough says that she was cleaning off her desk when she saw the number of the bible owner's great aunt. Scarbrough says she felt compelled to try the number one more time, and this time, the bible's owner answered.
Scarbrough says the young woman who owned the bible and her newborn son, born one week before the storms hit, had lived in Holt. The family moved to Atlanta after the storms, even though their home was not completely destroyed. Both women were mystified as to how to bible had flown backwards from Holt over to 15th Street in Tuscaloosa, especially considered the damage at the bible owner's home.
"When I told her the bible was open to Job, she said, I'm going to have to read this part over and over," Scarbrough says. Scarbrough sat down with the bible's owner while she was over at her home retrieving the book. They discussed the book of Job's meaning and it became emotional for both women. Scarbrough says the bible's owner indicated that getting the bible back and the page the book was opened to made her believe there was some sort of message and significance to the whole thing. Scarbrough says the young woman said that this day and occurrence would mark a big turning point in her life.
