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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Marvin Gressel, Sariann Gressel
Aired October 05, 2002 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the tale of the flying photo and its happy ending.
Two weeks ago, a tornado wrecked Marvin and Sariann Gressel's Indianapolis home, scattering their belongings for miles. Neighbors had to pull the couple from the wreckage. That in and of itself is quite a story.
But among their lost belongings was their 1950 wedding photograph. Then came the hand of a stranger. Don Grayson found the photo in his yard 20 miles away.
Now, on the phone from us right now to talk a little bit about this, from Indianapolis, Marvin and Sariann Gressel. Good to have you both with us.
SARIANN GRESSEL, WIFE: Thank you.
MARVIN GRESSEL, HUSBAND: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: First of all, this was a close call for you folks. Are you still kind of reeling from the whole thing?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Well, I'll tell you the truth, it almost feels like I'm still dreaming all of this. This is something that only happens to the other guy. I happened to be the other guy that day.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Sariann, describe what happened on that day.
SARIANN GRESSEL: He had his hand on the doorknob to go out into the garage to close the garage door. He never got the door opened, but it blew open as the tornado raced through, knocking him back against a counter in the kitchen.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Down on the floor, and here came the cabinets, the refrigerator, and the range and oven hood...
O'BRIEN: Holy cow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... down on top of us. But it formed almost like a tepee for us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Wow. So you -- so in a sense -- well, of course you had the bad luck to be struck by a tornado, but the good luck that when it all kind of fell down on you, you had a little protection there.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Yes, we did. And we're in this position for about 30 minutes when all of a sudden we heard a voice saying, Are you all right?
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: And it was our two fellows from Kadiwampus (ph) across the street, young men...
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... who came and, while one held up as best as he could that complete wall, the other one got me under the armpits, drug me out, the two of them carried me out, then they went back in and got Marvin.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that story in and of itself is -- has me -- I have lots more questions for you, but we have to talk about the photo. As you started to piece together your belongings, glad you were alive, obviously putting it all in perspective, I'm sure a photograph doesn't mean so much. But this was a special photograph, right, Marvin?
SARIANN GRESSEL: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
SARIANN GRESSEL: That's 52 years old.
O'BRIEN: So how did it come back to you?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Well, it -- we was notified from WISH that a man up around Fort Harrison had come home from wherever they had been, and they found a piece of paper, looked like, laying in the yard. They went over and picked it up, and lo and behold, it was a photograph.
So they called WISH and they came and got the photograph and put it on the TV, hoping that somebody would recognize it and give them a call to find out who it was.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
MARVIN GRESSEL: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: So you were just watching WISH and there you were?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Right, right.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
MARVIN GRESSEL: And they had about 30 or 35 calls from different people that they were sure who it was. That's when they started contacting us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. MARVIN GRESSEL: And then we went out to the gentleman's house one evening, and sure enough, it was us. And we was very grateful for it. We're having the photograph redone right now. It will look like the original photo again.
O'BRIEN: All right. There's one little thing on it, though, there's a little crease there.
MARVIN GRESSEL: Yes, it is.
O'BRIEN: Down by, you know, Sariann's hemline.
MARVIN GRESSEL: Right.
O'BRIEN: And I don't think the folks can see it at home, I don't have my Telestrator working right this morning, but...
MARVIN GRESSEL: Yes, it's like a little heart-shaped (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Wow. So you think that that's a sign or symbol or something?
MARVIN GRESSEL: It's a possibility.
SARIANN GRESSEL: There were many symbols that day...
MARVIN GRESSEL: Many symbols.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... my dear, yes. My -- our angels guarded us, believe me, they did.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Wow. Well, it's great to hear from you folks. We're glad you're well. And we're glad you have the photograph back. And we wish you many, many more years of love between you two. Great to hear from you.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: All right...
MARVIN GRESSEL: I hope that we have many, many more years.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MARVIN GRESSEL: You know, up to 74, one never knows.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, we wish you well.
MARVIN GRESSEL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us this morning.
CALLAWAY: Marvin and Sariann, what a great couple.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). CALLAWAY: And how lucky they are, you know. I've covered enough tornadoes to know how strange it is, how it can hit one house and not the other, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Yes, capricious it is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 5, 2002 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the tale of the flying photo and its happy ending.
Two weeks ago, a tornado wrecked Marvin and Sariann Gressel's Indianapolis home, scattering their belongings for miles. Neighbors had to pull the couple from the wreckage. That in and of itself is quite a story.
But among their lost belongings was their 1950 wedding photograph. Then came the hand of a stranger. Don Grayson found the photo in his yard 20 miles away.
Now, on the phone from us right now to talk a little bit about this, from Indianapolis, Marvin and Sariann Gressel. Good to have you both with us.
SARIANN GRESSEL, WIFE: Thank you.
MARVIN GRESSEL, HUSBAND: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: First of all, this was a close call for you folks. Are you still kind of reeling from the whole thing?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Well, I'll tell you the truth, it almost feels like I'm still dreaming all of this. This is something that only happens to the other guy. I happened to be the other guy that day.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Sariann, describe what happened on that day.
SARIANN GRESSEL: He had his hand on the doorknob to go out into the garage to close the garage door. He never got the door opened, but it blew open as the tornado raced through, knocking him back against a counter in the kitchen.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Down on the floor, and here came the cabinets, the refrigerator, and the range and oven hood...
O'BRIEN: Holy cow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... down on top of us. But it formed almost like a tepee for us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Wow. So you -- so in a sense -- well, of course you had the bad luck to be struck by a tornado, but the good luck that when it all kind of fell down on you, you had a little protection there.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Yes, we did. And we're in this position for about 30 minutes when all of a sudden we heard a voice saying, Are you all right?
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: And it was our two fellows from Kadiwampus (ph) across the street, young men...
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... who came and, while one held up as best as he could that complete wall, the other one got me under the armpits, drug me out, the two of them carried me out, then they went back in and got Marvin.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that story in and of itself is -- has me -- I have lots more questions for you, but we have to talk about the photo. As you started to piece together your belongings, glad you were alive, obviously putting it all in perspective, I'm sure a photograph doesn't mean so much. But this was a special photograph, right, Marvin?
SARIANN GRESSEL: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
SARIANN GRESSEL: That's 52 years old.
O'BRIEN: So how did it come back to you?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Well, it -- we was notified from WISH that a man up around Fort Harrison had come home from wherever they had been, and they found a piece of paper, looked like, laying in the yard. They went over and picked it up, and lo and behold, it was a photograph.
So they called WISH and they came and got the photograph and put it on the TV, hoping that somebody would recognize it and give them a call to find out who it was.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
MARVIN GRESSEL: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: So you were just watching WISH and there you were?
MARVIN GRESSEL: Right, right.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
MARVIN GRESSEL: And they had about 30 or 35 calls from different people that they were sure who it was. That's when they started contacting us.
O'BRIEN: Wow. MARVIN GRESSEL: And then we went out to the gentleman's house one evening, and sure enough, it was us. And we was very grateful for it. We're having the photograph redone right now. It will look like the original photo again.
O'BRIEN: All right. There's one little thing on it, though, there's a little crease there.
MARVIN GRESSEL: Yes, it is.
O'BRIEN: Down by, you know, Sariann's hemline.
MARVIN GRESSEL: Right.
O'BRIEN: And I don't think the folks can see it at home, I don't have my Telestrator working right this morning, but...
MARVIN GRESSEL: Yes, it's like a little heart-shaped (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Wow. So you think that that's a sign or symbol or something?
MARVIN GRESSEL: It's a possibility.
SARIANN GRESSEL: There were many symbols that day...
MARVIN GRESSEL: Many symbols.
SARIANN GRESSEL: ... my dear, yes. My -- our angels guarded us, believe me, they did.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Wow. Well, it's great to hear from you folks. We're glad you're well. And we're glad you have the photograph back. And we wish you many, many more years of love between you two. Great to hear from you.
SARIANN GRESSEL: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: All right...
MARVIN GRESSEL: I hope that we have many, many more years.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MARVIN GRESSEL: You know, up to 74, one never knows.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, we wish you well.
MARVIN GRESSEL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us this morning.
CALLAWAY: Marvin and Sariann, what a great couple.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). CALLAWAY: And how lucky they are, you know. I've covered enough tornadoes to know how strange it is, how it can hit one house and not the other, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Yes, capricious it is.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
