CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) - There are times when the strength of a community is tested. For many Clarksville residents and one family in particular, that test came on Dec. 9, when a powerful tornado tore through the city, taking four lives with it.
One of the victims was 10-year-old Arlan Coty.
"It's like a poem," said Katherine Burnham as she looked at her phone. "It says, 'I'll lend you for a little while a child of mine, he said. For you to love while he lives, and mourn when he is dead.'"
When Burnham struggles to find the right words for how she feels, she often leans on a poem.
"You'll have loving memories," she read, struggling to hold back her tears. "I miss my son. I wake up every day and I just wish this wasn't real. I wish that this was all a horrible, horrible nightmare and he was back," Burnham explained.
Arlan died as his two-story home on Henry Place Boulevard collapsed when an EF-3 tornado blew through his neighborhood, trapping two of three children under the rubble. Arlan was a fourth-grader at West Creek Elementary School.
However, instead of talking about how he died, Burnham likes to talk about how Arlan lived.
"He lit up a room; that's the best way to describe it. He had the best smile; he had dimples; everybody comments on his dimples. Just such a good soul," she said, thinking back to the memories with him. "I had never thought, you know, living in the home with Arlan, that he was the one that kept us talking and laughing, and now that he's gone it is so evident in our home. Our home is quiet; there's definitely not as much laughter. No one can take his place. No one can even fill his shoes."
Like most 10-year-olds, Arlan was interested in a lot of things, but it was on a basketball court where he found his passion, even at a young age.
"He knew probably every stat of every great player that has ever played in the NBA, so I think that is where he started to kind of flourish in basketball," Burnham said smiling. "He used to tell me all the time he wanted to train like Kobe Bryant, and I was like, 'Well, you don't wake up early enough so that's not going to work.'"
So it was fitting for him to make a semi-pro team.
"He was only 10 years old and he loved basketball, but he didn't get to really experience basketball at all. So as a semi-pro basketball team in the area, we thought it was the least that we could do to honor him, a jersey," said Georgia Williams, the General Manager of the Clarksville Phoenix Basketball team.
During the aftermath of the tornado, the Clarksville Phoenix wanted to give back in a way to Arlan's family and honor his life. On Christmas Day, the team retired a jersey in his honor, making Arlan's dreams of being part of a basketball team come true.
"After something happens and then it was so close to the holidays, you know, people get together with their families and not to say at all that people forgot about what happened, but it's easy to kind of let it slip away. So we just feel like especially going into a new year, it's very important to keep his name alive and to keep remembering him as much as we can," said Williams. "Being the general manager of a basketball team, I figured that would be the best way we could do something in his honor, and so we retired jersey number 87. As long as we exist, no one will ever wear that jersey and it will always be there in remembrance of Arlan."
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The goal is to make sure he is never forgotten.
"My biggest fear is that people will forget Arlan was special; he was a really special kid, and I don't think he should ever be forgotten, so to make sure of that coming into 2024...is big," said Burnham.
This Saturday, Jan. 6, the Clarksville Phoenix basketball team is asking everyone to wear gold and purple at their game. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at Kenwood High School.