“When you have love in your heart, it doesn’t make a difference who you are, you just love people. You judge character. Love the person, address the behavior. We don’t like doing that. We always say ‘I don’t like him,’ but it’s not the person you don’t like, it’s their behavior, the actions, you would like to see differently. The Bible says seven times 70, so that’s just how I am. You want a clean energy, clean heart. I think you live longer. I just want my name and any time I’m connected to someone, I want them to leave better, I want them to feel better. And when I’m with someone else, I want to feel like they made me better. That’s just how I try to be.” – Tora Henry of Huntsville.

Henry’s job transferred her and her husband to Huntsville in 2011. She is an Equal Employment Opportunity director for the Army. She loves Latin music and also teaches Zumba at the Hogan Family YMCA in Madison.

Tora Henry has “family” around the world because she loves and feels close to those she has come to know. (Dana Mixer / People of Alabama)

“My husband and I retired from the Marine Corps. Prior to moving to Huntsville, we spent six and a half years in Okinawa, Japan. The biggest thing I learned overseas is about the love of family who are not blood. We connected with so many people that we still consider brothers and sisters. We’re not blood but it doesn’t matter. Family is what you make it and how you define it.”

Henry says they still keep in touch and have reunions with their “family members” who live all over the world, although the pandemic has delayed them seeing each other.

These are the faces and stories of people from all walks of life who call Alabama home. People of Alabama is a Red Clay Media and Alabama NewsCenter partnership.