WATERLOO - The concentration was etched on Renae Kincaid's face as she maneuvered the manila envelope through the fingers of her left hand.

Using her chin to stabilize the envelope she began the slow process of ripping through the paper. She was finally forced to ask for help when the metal clasp proved too difficult to open.

Two months ago Kincaid would have been able to tear through the golden envelope to find the 48th birthday card inside, but now the task is more than she is capable of.

Today, her right arm is gone and she is just happy to be alive.

Kincaid was at the New Hartford home she shared with her boyfriend, Norman Beuthien, on May 25. They had been outside unloading groceries from the car when Kincaid noticed the change in the weather.

"The wind just felt different," she said from her hospital bed at Covenant Medical Center.

The couple soon realized the severity of the situation and rushed to the outside entrance to the home's root cellar, hoping to find safety in the dark room below. Unable to open the door, they ran for the house. They hoped to get to a closet and the cubby below before the storm bore down on their home.

"We were in the house and we got to the entryway, by a door frame," Kincaid said.

"We knew we wouldn't make it down to the cubby. Norm grabbed me and told me he loved me and I told him I loved him. He told me everything would be OK," Kincaid said.

Those were the last words the couple would speak to each other as the wind ripped them from their home. Beuthien died in the storm. Kincaid was rushed to Sartori Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Nicole McDonald, a close family friend who lives just outside Parkersburg, watched the tornado rip through the town from her front yard. As soon as the storm passed she headed to Buethien and Kincaid's home. When she arrived, there was little left.

"Everything was pretty well gone. There wasn't a board or shingle or anything left out in the country," she said.

Kincaid had already been taken to Sartori. Beuthein's body still lay in the field about 50 yards from the couple's home. She remembers someone telling her that Kincaid had been found just 10 feet from where he lay.

"(Renae) remembers they were hanging onto each other when it hit. She remembers yelling his name until she couldn't hear him anymore and then she began yelling for help" McDonald said.

Long road ahead

Kincaid remembers little about the moments and hours following the EF-5 tornado that leveled their home on 325th Street. She remembers calling for help and then waking up at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

In addition to losing her right arm just below the shoulder, she suffered what's known as a degloving injury in which a section of her scalp was peeled away from her skull. Kincaid also had soft tissue damage in her right leg and a large open wound and broken greater trochauter in her left leg.

Dr. Barbara Malicka-Rozek, a Covenant Clinic physiatrist, said with the use of a prosthetic arm Kincaid will eventually be able to return to her normal daily activities. Someday she will once again be able to use her right arm to cast a fishing pole or even butcher her own meat, activities she has enjoyed for decades.

But the recovery process is expected to be long and arduous.

Since returning to Covenant two weeks ago Kincaid has had physical and occupational therapy sessions twice daily, six days a week. Malicka-Rozek said even after returning home Kincaid can expect several additional months of outpatient therapy as she learns to use her prosthetic arm.

Finding strength

The weeks following the storm have been difficult as Kincaid works to process the loss of her boyfriend and her own injuries.

She has found strength in a core of Covenant nurses, like Cindy Kannegieter, who have worked tirelessly on her behalf. When Kannegieter learned Kincaid had lost her only pair of trifocal glasses in the tornado she moved quickly to get them replaced.

"I had a friend in the hospital after the tornado and they were given glasses by the next day," Kannegieter said. "I knew I would have been so disoriented without my glasses and we needed to get something done."

With the help of a Covenant social worker and the American Red Cross Kincaid had a voucher for a new pair of glasses in about 24 hours.

The nurses have also helped Kincaid through some tense moments when a recent wave of severe weather threatened Northeast Iowa. Kannegieter said she and another nurse had to reassure Kincaid that the storms were not headed for Waterloo.

Kincaid said she can't thank them enough for their help.

"They are all really nice. It feels good, like I have known them forever," Kincaid said.

The newfound fear of severe weather, however, will eventually send Kincaid back to her hometown in Michigan's upper peninsula.

"I'm scared to be down here with the lightning and tornadoes," she said. "Up there, we get a lot of snow, but I can handle that."

McDonald, who has offered to care for Kincaid after she is released from the hospital, said she expects Kincaid to battle some rough times as she comes to grips with what has happened.

"She's had some tough times already, especially in Iowa City when she found out about Norm and then not being able to be there during the funeral," McDonald said. "She's had a few breakdown moments, but I think the worst will come when she finally gets out."

Kincaid, though, said she is finding strength in her loss and waits patiently for the day she is strong enough to visit Buethien's grave.

"It's a challenge, but I just take it one day at a time," she said. "Norm, he was my angel."

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.