Lucky
All I can think, is how very lucky I am. How lucky my entire family and community are. We had tornados go through the area on Saturday night. Luckily, everything is perfectly fine here where I live, but some of my neighboring communities were not so fortunate. Homes have been destroyed and lives have been turned upside down.While watching the news last night, I couldn't help but feel moved by the victims' stories because that very easily could have been us. Everything that we have worked for, all of our memories, everything that we own could have been destroyed. We could have even lost our lives. But nothing. I knew that I wanted to help in any way I could, but like anything that puts us outside our comfort zone, a million reasons why not to do it went through my head. Even this morning, I didn't think that I was going to go. But when there was only thirty minutes until I was supposed to be there, I jumped into action deciding to go. And I am so glad I did. Even though it doesn't feel like I did much, if I only helped a little I am glad.The house that I worked at was basically only left with the cement from the garage and the foundation. Everything was scattered, everything was in pieces. The woman that lived there did survive, but she is in the hospital. I went around all day picking up little pieces of debris and put them into piles. When we actually found something personal in tact, it was like finding gold. The most precious things I found were obviously pictures. And most of them very old pictures from about the 1940's. It was such a wonderful feeling knowing that you had saved a precious memory, but then you were quickly reminded how many were missing.I so badly wanted to be taking pictures of the houses, the people, and the scattered items. As sad as it was, I could see the images that I could create. But it never felt right to be taking pictures and turning their devastation into art. Here is the only image I took, from my camera phone of the house I worked on. You can no longer see the house, but you can see the piles of debris.
If you want to know more about the tornados that hit, CLICK HERE for the news story. And if you want to help, they are meeting tomorrow again at 10:00 AM at the Senior Center in Wauseon, OH.