WAVERLY, Tenn. (WTVF) — In Waverly, cement slabs mark the place where homes once stood and overgrowth hides the ground where memories were made.
"This is where my kids learned to ride their bikes," said former Waverly resident Libby Sanders.
She and her son Madden returned to the site of their old home which was destroyed in the flood.
"This is where my husband played basketball when they were real little, you know, and it’s just things like that that come to mind," she said.
A year ago, floodwaters tore through the town forever changing its landscape and the lives of those who lived there.
"We went to walk out the door, our car was covered, it was coming into the porch," recalled Sanders.
She remembers the moment the waters ripped her from her son Madden.
"I pushed him out just a little bit and whenever I did the current took him one way and took me underneath the house," she said. "And the last thing I heard from him was him screaming ‘mommy’ at me."
Madden, who was 8 years old at the time, had been swept away by the raging current.
"I was thinking that my mamma was dead," he said.
But he grabbed hold of a branch and pulled himself onto the roof of a shed. Cell phone video shows him being rescued after waiting alone for hours.
Madden's uncle Joshua Hendrix searched for Madden, hoping to save him, but sadly Joshua was one of the 20 who died in the flood.
Now, although much has been washed away, the memories remain.
"Sometimes when it’s like raining really hard and like thundering really hard it kind of reminds me of it," Madden said.
The family has since moved a few towns over and Madden is excited for the future.
"This lady at the school, she said that she can teach me how to swim so I can be a really strong swimmer," he said.
But one year since the Waverly flood, he found himself immersed in a different kind of water — he was baptized.
Madden's family is looking forward to celebrating another milestone next week. Madden will turn 10 years old.
