JOPLIN, Mo. — Aspen Bowman has a tiny scar on her index finger.

It’s the only visible reminder that she was caught up and injured in the May 22 tornado, but she bears the scar almost proudly.

“Was that worth what we went through?” jokes Sgt. Gabe Allen, of the Joplin Police Department, who was photographed that night carrying the injured girl to safety.

Allen and the Bowman family were briefly reunited at a Joplin police station on Thursday to be formally introduced, nearly three months after the tornado. Strangers but for the storm that caused their paths to meet that night, they found common ground in sharing their stories and relief in knowing those stories had a happy ending.

“I just went over there and did what I could,” Allen said after Tammay Bowman, Aspen’s mother, hugged him as thanks for taking care of her daughter.

“Well, we appreciate it,” she responded.

On May 22, Bowman had driven into Joplin to shop for groceries with three of her seven children, 11-year-old Aspen, 8-year-old Sarah and 3-year-old Jeramias. The remaining four children stayed at their rural McDonald County home with their father.

Their first stop was Sam’s Club off of South Range Line Road, where they loaded up their bulk items. As Bowman left the store, the wail of nearby tornado sirens sounded.

Caught inside Aldi

The family then drove up to the Aldi grocery store at 20th Street and Range Line Road to finish shopping. Bowman said she and her children had wandered up only one aisle when they heard “noises.”

Aldi staff began shepherding the 12 to 15 people inside the store toward the back freezer section, away from the windows. Bowman and Aspen hit the floor, kneeling down and covering their heads. Sarah crouched between them, while Aspen grabbed Jeramias and put him on her lap.

Bowman said she could focus only on her children.

“The wind was so powerful, all I could think in my mind was hold on, hold on to the kids,” she said. “When the actual tornado was going on, I went into ‘mom mode.’ I didn’t have time to get scared because I wanted to make sure the kids were OK.”

When it was all over, there was nothing left of the Aldi store but a pile of rubble. Amazingly, the only visible sign of injury among the family members was Aspen’s bloody hand, which Bowman wrapped in a rag as the girls screamed at the sight of blood.

As the clouds continued to pour rain and hail on Joplin, the Bowmans were directed toward the nearby Academy Sports store.

Helping the injured

As the storm subsided, the four huddled in their sleeping bags in the parking lot. They said people were running around crazily, trying to figure out what to do next.

“It’s like what you would see in a movie,” Aspen said.

Bowman finally reached her husband by cellphone to tell him what had happened, and he immediately began the long, slow journey into Joplin to get them. He wouldn’t arrive for another four hours.

Not knowing where else to go, the four stayed put. Eventually, Bowman said, she realized that Aspen’s bandaged hand was turning blue. She flagged down the nearest rescue worker — Allen, a Joplin police officer.

Allen rode out the tornado with his family in the basement of his house, which was undamaged. He had flipped his police radio on as soon as the tornado sirens went off and, just minutes afterward, heard an initial report of people trapped in the Sonic at Range Line Road and 20th Street.

He arrived at the intersection about 10 minutes after the tornado passed. Nothing could have prepared him for the magnitude of the damage, the “amount of people sitting around with blank stares on their face,” the death and destruction, he said. But he jumped to action immediately.

“You plan for catastrophic events, large-scale events, the training and adrenaline kicks in, and you just do what you know has to be done,” he said.

Moving on

Moving forward has not been easy for Bowman and her daughters.

Simply put, “it has been scary,” Sarah said, her voice low and her head turned down.

Bowman said she didn’t realize how deeply she had been affected until earlier this month, when a strong storm system moved through Southwest Missouri. Driving home from Neosho with her husband, she said she was curled up, shaking, in the passenger’s seat as the storm raged outside.

“Just the wind rocking the vehicle and the sound of the rain — I almost can’t explain what it does to you,” she said.