BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Saban Ferizi has been through a lot in his life. Before he came to America to become a truck driver, he served in the Albanian Armed Forces. He showed me a few wounds he got while serving. 

What You Need To Know

  • Saban Ferizi immigrated to America in the late 1990s

  • He lost his home and his kids to a fire in 2019

  • Ferizi used insurance money to rebuild, but then the tornado destroyed it again

  • This house was uninsured
  • He has been sleeping in his car for the time being

 

“What happened?” I asked.

“Shot,” Ferizi said with a smile.

“You got shot?!” I had to do a double take.

“Yeah!” Ferizi said.

But a couple of bullet wounds are nothing compared to what he’s lost over the last two years.

“Here I lost three kids: 19 years, 14 and a half year and 24 years,” Ferizi said.

His home burned down in a fire in 2019. He made it out but his three kids didn’t.

“After that, life must go, no one’s looking back,” he said. “Must go (forward).”

Ferizi rebuilt his house with insurance money. It was the only thing he had left, until the tornado destroyed that, too.

“Where have you been sleeping the last couple days?” I asked.

“I’m sleeping inside,” he said, pointing to the back of his car.

He didn’t even know the tornado damaged his house until he drove up saturday morning.

“I see this down and I didn’t believe,” Ferizi said. “I feel bad. I think everything bad stuff [sic] for me.”

Now, all that’s left is the house’s foundation and a couple pictures that brought him to tears when volunteers recovered them.

“When you see a picture, in your mind, everything comes in,” Ferizi said with tears in his eyes. “The first day, the last day when they leave.” 

There has been one spark of hope for Ferizi: the volunteers. Dozens of people came out Monday to help him begin picking up the pieces.

“This is where I live. I mean, we’re all from Bowling Green,” Lori Caudel said. “I came out unscathed, so it’s only fair I help the people that didn’t.”

Volunteers of all ages came out, young and old.

“I just like to give back. This is a terrible tragedy,” 16-year-old Javier Duncan said. “I’ve lived here most of my life, never seen anything like this before.”

Whatever the cause, the effect is noticeable. It’s what’s keeping Ferizi afloat.

“I lost everything. I lost my niece, I lost family, I lost (my) house,” he said. “But when I look at all the people, God bless everybody, and thank you.”

His road back will be hard, but this community will support him every step of the way.