About The River

Thursday, June 15, 2017

A story from the 92 year old lady ....


This past September I applied for a Meals on Wheels position with our local Office on Aging. I work part time. The position is two weeks on, two weeks off. During my weeks on, I work a total of 20 hours a week, 4 hours a day.
I have a rural route. I deliver to 10 different homes and take bulk food to the Chetek Senior Center. 

May 16th, our county was hit by a F3 tornado. It made the National news, 25 injured and one person died. This tornado was only two miles from our home. 
This tornado touched down right in the area I deliver meals.

I was not on the route the week of the tornado. Doug my co worker called to share with me that everyone was well, but oh my, a mess.

Now for my story, from my sweet 92 year old.
I was back to work the week after the touch down. As I made me deliveries I was in shock. As I drove to my sweet 92 year old, I could not believe it!  A huge pine tree fell on her house and the entire area around her was gone, ripped up, her deck was gone, trees, flowers, garden and even the shoreline down to the lake. 
I gave her a hug! I asked her "you are 92 years old, have you ever been in a tornado?"
"No, I have not! This is my first one."

Her son lives across the street from her, she told me he came over and said "Mom, a tornado is on the way. We need to get you down in the basement." She told him, " I am not going in the basement she said, I am going to the bathroom, I will never make it back up from the basement." 

She was out of power for four days. She told me, "I stayed right here! I was not about to leave my home."  The interesting thing was that after the tornado, our weather was cold and rainy for the rest of the week. With a tarp on the roof and half the house and no power, it got chilly. She said, "Oh I was fine, I went to bed early and got cozy under the blankets."

So why did I share the quote above?

My sweet 92 year old, has just lost half of her home, all of her trees and her shoreline. She takes me to the window that over looks the lake. The tornado also touched down across the lake, and took all the trees and tore up the earth. As she looked across the lake, she looked at me and said "Carla, I never knew all those homes where across the lake, it is so pretty at night to see the lights twinkle." 

... 
Another positive thinker in the tornado.
The area the tornado hit was full of trees, the homes were built among towering pines. What is so strange is the tornado took the pine trees, garages, out buildings but left many of the homes. I noticed today when I delivered, one of the homes that survived, they planted a vegetable garden. Something they could not do before because of all the shade. 
I hope they have a great first vegetable garden season.
 
 "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." - Abraham Lincoln
 

17 comments:

  1. There are some remarkable people here in our country and if we will just take the time to listen...and learn...oh what a difference it can make for us all. Thanks for sharing this Carla. We could all have more positive attitudes, even when hit with disaster. (I'm off to the Farmer's mkt this morning! It's one of the highlights of my week.) Hugs, Diane

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Carla, this post brought tears to my eyes. What a remarkable woman she is, and I suspect her positive attitude has served her well throughout her 92 years. I need to put that quote on my wall. It's so true, isn't it!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a blessing for you to know this sweet lady, and get to learn from her.
    She sounds like a true gem.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carla- I love this, thank you for sharing this encouraging story. <3

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aww this is beautiful!! Thank you for sharing! I want to be like her!

    ReplyDelete
  6. She surely has an attitude of gratitude! She is an inspiration. Thank you for serving those people and for sharing the story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These people are so blessed to have YOU to deliver to them! What an amazing story! I do think that people who grew up way back then, without any technology, were really better equipped for things like this. They were strong, maybe stronger than us. Our generation has gotten kind of soft. What a blessing and inspiration that lady is to all of us!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is beautiful and so very, very uplifting....A dear friend recommended this to me today and I am so thankful she did....thank you for sharing. I so hope she continues to recover and live well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The power of positive thinking and perspective can change so many situations in our lives from bad to good. I often forget this. Thank you for the reminder and blessings to your friend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a beautiful, positive story you shared. Thank you for this, you made me smile, you made me feel hopeful that what a beautiful, positive story you shared. Thank you for this, you made me smile, you made me feel hopeful the sun does shine again ❤️

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a sweet, sweet post and such positiveness. I love that wise 92 year yound lady. She is made of the right stuff and so positive.
    Thanks for sharing this beautiful story.
    Smiles & hugs.
    Julia

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Carla, I never knew all those homes where across the lake, it is so pretty at night to see the lights twinkle."

    "...they planted a vegetable garden. Something they could not do before because of all the shade."


    What hope!

    Sometimes the storm is just clearing out debris. :)



    ReplyDelete
  13. BLess her heart and all she has been through. I hope I am that optimistic at 92.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm so glad that you were ok in the storm and that your 92 year old friend was so upbeat during a scary, dangerous experience like that. What you said about the vegetable garden made me think of a house in our neighborhood. They lost three huge old trees in their yard and not long afterwards I was walking by and saw that they had planted a new vegetable garden and filled it with tomatoes, something they could never do before with all their shade. They even used some of the larger limbs from the trees to create their raised bed.

    Such positive thinking is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing these stories.

    Sending hugs to you, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Simply amazing ...
    Many thanks for sharing this Carla.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is a beautiful story. I need to try harder to see the positive side of each situation.

    ReplyDelete

High Fives from Wisconsin!