Sunday Morning
The news this morning….tornadoes sweeping across the midwest with images that vibrate my bones. In 1989 when Hurricane Hugo hit Charleston, Sullivans Island was a direct hit, and this is where my two daughters, two golden retrievers and one rabbit lived with me, under my protection.
Tornadoes smashed the homes on either side of our funky old green house, spared us, but the hurricane blew ours off its foundation and surged plough mud through the first floor, ruining everything in its path.
We had evacuated to higher ground, and when the coast was clear, my older daughter Melanie, who was 13, and I boarded the ferry with National Guardsmen on attention and rode ‘borrowed’ bikes over to our house to see what was what….we passed family after family sobbing and standing in shock in front of what used to be their homes…and then we found ours. As heart wrenching as it was for me, it was traumatic for Melanie.
The aftermath included salvaging whatever we could that we three had managed to carry up a twisty iron staircase to the second floor a few hours before the onslaught…then, with the help of friends we moved to a temporary new home….tried to soothe our pets….and hang in together.
The golden retrievers, mother and son had not done well. Julius, the pup, had broken his leg a few months before and was still in a cast. The dramatic upheaval had destroyed his hip joint resulting in emergency surgery to have a hip replacement. As he was not full-grown, he had a life-time of dealing with a back leg that would pop out of its socket. Lily, his mother went insane. Crying none-stop and peeing in circles. A lovely group of elderly women who lived in a mansion on The Battery adopted her and basically held her in their laps for the rest of her life. Hazel, the rabbit caught a cold and died.
The rest of us? One more layer of life experience that lives in our bodies and hearts and now extends to those experiencing the same thing.
And PS……yes….Julius and Hazel….bless their hearts and souls….THE major characters in my children’s book series.