Kent Bugg and his family face rebuilding their home while fighting cancer

COAL CITY – On Jan. 2, Kent Bugg started sharing on a blog the story of his daughter Megan's fight with Stage 4 cancer.

There is no way Bugg, superintendent of Coal City Community Unit School District 1, could have known that on day 172 of her journey, he would be writing about a tornado that would rip through the family’s home.

"It made her cry just looking at it," he said of Megan's first look at the damage as she, her mother and her sister came up from the basement after an EF3 tornado hit Coal City Monday night. "It's hard to not to be able to come home to her sanctuary."

Readers have come to know the Bugg family through the daily blog posts in a way most wouldn’t. They’ve read about Megan’s fight against alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, her stays in the hospital as she received numerous chemotherapy treatments, and as she battled illness caused by the medicines given to save her life.

And they learned that throughout the difficult times and treatments, Megan found comfort in going home.

Bugg and his wife, Deb, spent Monday taking Megan, 13, from one appointment to the next as she received the first of 20 proton radiation treatments to the left side of her head and radiation treatment 11 of 28 on her left forearm.

They were thankful to be home and awaited the return of their oldest daughter, Kenzie, who had a volleyball match in Kankakee.

Bugg said Kenzie, 16, had returned from her match and soon the weather alerts started. They took shelter in the bathroom in the basement to ride out the storm. Two minutes later, after pressure made their ears pop and furniture could be heard shifting above, it was suddenly silent again.

Bugg was optimistic as he went upstairs to check on the damage – until he reached the second story.

“Kenzie’s room was pretty bad. We lost the wall in both our bedroom and hers,” he said. “The important thing is all of us are together, all four of us, no matter what.”

While the Bugg family echoed the sentiments of many of their neighbors, that things can be replaced, it didn’t help Kenzie when she saw the car she got just a week ago sitting damaged in front of their home.

Megan missed her treatment Tuesday, but her mother said she’d return to the doctor Wednesday and keep moving forward. The family is staying with friends while they wait for the builder to come survey the home.

On Tuesday, after friends spent the day helping them clean, Kenzie loaded the few clothes she saved from her room into her friend Nick Hayden’s car so she could wash the items.

Bugg said Hayden was one of the first to arrive Monday night to help, and was back at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to continue the work.

“They’ve all been here for me,” Hayden said of the Bugg family.

“I will always be there for them.”