KERRVILLE, Texas – A Kerrville widow is sharing with KSAT the story of losing her husband in this year’s floods, describing both the heartbreak and the faith she’s leaning on in the aftermath.
More than two weeks ago, 65-year-old Mark Steward was swept away at his home along Goat Creek Road, according to authorities. His wife, Jennie Steward, remembers her husband as a man driven by his faith, and someone who loved his family, including his three daughters.
“I know that he was my true love, that he was my soulmate,” she said.
She said meeting Mark at church was an answered prayer. She moved to Kerrville around three years ago to help her in recovery for addiction, and after, got plugged into Impact Christian Fellowship church. The two met and got married a few months after.
“He would tuck me into the corner of his arm, and he would say, ‘simpatico,’ we fit together perfectly,” Steward said.
The Stewards lived along Goat Creek in Kerrville in a double-wide. She said Tuesday morning, the morning of their third wedding anniversary, she left for Dallas while Mark stayed home.
“I came to find out that the creek rose over 50 feet in three hours in the middle of the night,” she said.
She suspects Mark woke up to the rising water and realized their porch was gone.
“He called our neighbor, Mike, and said that he was trapped and he couldn’t get out. The phone call disconnected,” she said. “Before Mike could jump into his truck, he watched the house lift up and float across the front of his property and break apart right there.”
After the neighbor called police, she said he called her. She described turning to social media, hoping for a miracle.
“I went to Facebook just pleading for people, hoping that he’s holding onto a tree or something, not knowing. And then at about 1 o’clock that afternoon, I got a phone call,” she said.
She lost her husband, her home and everything inside.
“Everything was ripped away from me in an instant,” she said.
When asked what her path forward looks like, Jennie Steward said, “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Even so, she said her faith is steady.
“I could choose to get angry and resentful, or I can choose to look at the goodness of God,” she said. “I choose that way,” she said.
In the meantime, she said she is asking for prayers, not only for her, but for Mark’s brother, three daughters, and family and friends. Impact Christian Fellowship church and a friend of Jennie Steward have set up a fund under her name.
Jennie Steward said Mark was born in Carson City, Texas, and was a graduate of Westlake High School in Austin. He graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in restaurant management, but was more recently working as a caregiver for a woman with dementia.
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