Working hard, loving God

Working hard, loving God

Neighbors and friends remember Michael and Tina Forrest as a lively, happy pair who worked hard and loved God.

“They were two of the most incredible people you will ever meet,” Gadsden resident Gina Coggins said Thursday as she stood next to the cinderblock foundation of her friends’ old home — the only part of the structure still intact.

They moved from Hoover to their lakeside home on Neely Henry Lake in Ohatchee a year ago.

The Forrests’ neighbors — Kim and Mark Thompson — also recalled the couple’s dedication to the Christian faith and their hardworking ways.

Mike Forrest was the kind of neighbor who always said hello, Mark Thompson said, the kind of guy who waved when he saw you.

Mike Forrest worked long hours at a Publix grocery store in Birmingham, Coggins added. But his first love was graphic design, she remembered. Before the economy went sour, Mike helped design pages for a contracting company with Southern Living Magazine.

The Forrests leave behind a daughter who works in Birmingham and a younger son, stationed as a Marine in Afghanistan, Alabama Deputy Fire Marshal Tommy Wiggonton said.

Coggins attended church with the Forrests at the World Outreach Center in Oneonta, and Tina Forrest worked as a paralegal at Coggins’ Gadsden law firm.

“Tina and I left the office together yesterday. We walked out together at the same time, saying we were going to go home and take cover,” Coggins said through tears. “And she did; they posted on Facebook later that they were hunkered down in their house with a pot of coffee. They were two of the most wonderful people.”

Tina Forrest, 49, was found dead under a tree near the banks of Neely Henry Lake Thursday morning.

First responders had pulled Mike Forrest from the lake sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday morning. Forrest was alive when emergency workers found him, but he died from his extensive injuries at a hospital in Gadsden Thursday morning, Wiggonton said.

Tina had spent much of her free time in recent days talking about how excited she was her son, Blake, was coming home from Afghanistan at the beginning of May, Coggins said. Tina planned to drive to Camp LeJeune in North Carolina next week, just so she could be the first person to hug her son, who’s been gone since last summer.

“They were the best neighbors,” Kim Thompson said. “And now they’re gone and we’ve lost everything, too.”

The Thompson’s mobile home was also destroyed in the storm, along with five other homes along the Eagle Cove Road stretch that overlooks Lake Neely Henry.

Jessica Peterson, the Forrests’ daughter, cried when she arrived to see the wreckage that used to be her parents’ home. As she scoured the debris, searching for a photo album, a family Bible, a muddy picture of her brother in uniform, Coggins looked on, tears rimming her eyes.

“This is so hard. I just can’t believe it,” Coggins said. “The last thing they posted on Facebook was, ‘It’s headed our way. We’ve got angels to protect us or angels to usher us into heaven. No fear.’ Yes, that was them.”

from http://annistonstar.com/bookmark/13034290-Loved-ones-remember-those-taken-by-Wednesday%E2%80%99s-storms