PEARSON, Ark. (KTHV) -- Every chance he gets, you'll find 25-year-old Blake Baldridge on his family's land in Cleburne County raising and training his water dogs.
"I love this area because it's where I was raised," says Blake.
Blake has a passion for the outdoors. But two years ago, the outdoors turned deadly. March 10, 2010 is a day Blake will never forget.
He says, "It's hard looking back, realize what I had and what I have now, because I don't have anything."
Taking so much away from Blake, "Paralyzed from the belly button down," as well as his family.
"My grandfather had tremendous head injuries," recalls Blake.
An empty field is where two homes once stood. One was Blake's the other his grandparents.
He remembers, "Started raining supposed to be severe that night. I got worried that something bad was going to happen, I got the feeling, so I left my house and come to my grandparents' house. I laid over granny and about that time the house started shaking, shaking like a rocking chair. I seen the floor on the ceiling, at that time that's when I blacked out."
A tornado literally exploded both homes. It hit before Blake, his grandmother Iva Jean and grandfather Ward could even get to the storm cellar. It threw all three from the house.
Blake's dad Bryan Baldridge recalls, "I found my daddy and Blake right there together."
Bryan lives in another house on the property. He remembers, "Blake said he couldn't feel his legs and daddy said his legs were hurting."
They'd been thrown more than 150 feet. Blake's grandmother had been thrown even farther.
Iva Jean says, "I have a hip, pelvic, back, fractures in my back and my sternum and ribs."
It would be days before Blake and his grandmother realized Ward hadn't survived. Blake was devastated but also determined.
"I was immediately, getting in the floor, trying to figure out how to get back in my chair," says Blake.
And in just a little over a month, Blake found himself back in the woods. Turkey hunting, deer hunting even fishing. Blake is an inspiration.
"Oh he means everything to me," says Iva Jean.
A hero to his family.
Bryan says, "Blake, he saved my mama and everything and if he hadn't got on top of mamma, I don't believe mama would have made it."
For Blake Baldridge, he's learned you have to "reel in" every moment.
"Life is precious," he says.
He's moving on and knows his grandfather would be proud and is watching over him.
Now this is not Blake's first comeback. As a child he says he battled a disease that put him in a body cast and leg braces. He says doctors told him he would never play sports. But he did and much more.
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