And when he looked at pictures he had taken two days after the May 11 tornado, he was sure of it. A photograph of a damaged maple tree in the front yard of their house at 303 W. Third, shows the faint image of an angel, wings outstretched, looking down.

It must be a guardian angel, explained Linda Ottens, mother of four.

When the tornado sirens sounded on May 11, Linda Otten’s children, Billy, 15, Bobby, 16, Bradley, 13, Becky, 17, were home and their mother was at work at the Eudora Nursing Center.

“We were frightened,” Billy Ottens said. “I really wasn’t that scared at first I love tornadoes. I wanted to stay out and see the thing, but my sister was yelling at me to hide in the hall.”

Then the phone rang. It was Linda Ottens, who had heard the weather reports and called to check on her children.

“I answered the phone, but couldn’t talk long,” Billy said. “We could feel the air pressure dropping.”

Because the modular home does not have a basement, the children took shelter in the hallway.

“We were praying, of course,” Billy said.

The tornado that destroyed most of the buildings on the fairgrounds only several hundred feet away, pretty much left the Ottens house alone.

“I believe that was the angel watching over us,” Billy said. “She wanted to check up on us.”

Billy Otten, who says he enjoys taking pictures on vacations and special occasions, said he was surprised to see the angel in the photo.

“I was just excited, amazed,” he said. “I never thought I would ever be able to take a picture like that it just happened.”