A Note From Mommy

Dear Family, Friends and Loved Ones...
As many of you know, last weekend Abby and I decided we were going to go to Gadsden to visit with Grams. Originally, Mom (a.k.a. Gramercy, Jan, Janet) was scheduled to be out of town, and Dad (a.k.a. Papa Doc, Jim, Wally) was going to be on-call with his patients. As luck had it, both of those things fell through and we were able to plan a nice weekend visiting with everyone. We arrived in town Friday in time for lunch with Dad, a visit to Grams and a nice long nap. Around 5 PM, Mom, Dad, Abby and I headed out for a nice dinner and when we got back to the house it was time for bed. The sky looked like bad weather would be coming that evening. A thunderstorm started rolling through around 8 PM or so. It progressively worsened and lightening was everywhere. At 3:30 AM (CST) the morning of Saturday, March 15, 2008, lightening hit my parent's house. As far as we can tell now, it hit the roof top over the rooms in which Abby and I were sleeping - if you are looking at the house from the street, that would be the top left side of the house. There was a horrendously loud noise (like a shot gun going off next to my ear), a bright light outside (when I sat up it looked like daylight outside for a few quick seconds) and within a few minutes there was the beginnings of a weird smell - not really smoke but almost as if something rubber was burned - making us think some type of small electrical fire. Unbeknownst to us, the fire was spreading through the attic while we were getting up to figure out why we lost power and what was going on. When outside checking the transformer, Dad noticed the flames on the rooftop and called 911. We managed to get out of the house - scared, confused, upset...BUT ALIVE AND UNHURT. At least 4 firetrucks and 20+ people assisted with the fire but there was 100% destruction. The entire 4 story house is gone. Reduced to rubble, ashes and memories - nothing else. After lots of tears, disbelief, amazement and prayers of thanksgiving, we (Mom, Dad, Abby and I ) checked into a local hotel and began to assess a plan for the future. While at the hotel, we ended up being forced to sit in the hallway of the 1st floor due to a passing tornado. Finally we were allowed back in our rooms and we went out on the town for the next day to assess damage. And if things couldn't get any worse, Sunday mid-morning Grams was determined to be unresponsive and was taken to the E.R. by ambulance. As of Monday afternoon, Grams was home (and doing great - she had simply been dehydrated and needed lots of fluids), we had all gotten a little bit of sleep and we were able to sit down and breathe.

Mom and Dad are taking this week to take care of several necessities - including being alone with each other, sharing each other's memories and consoling each other's heart breaks. I've tried not to think about how close the four of us came to losing our lives. When closing my eyes for the last 3 nights, I hear the bang, see the flames and can't get out of my mind the image of the room where Abby was - just MINUTES before - collapsing in flames to the story below. My mind continues to think and I remember seeing the image of my Mom, during the initial first few minutes of the ordeal, holding out her arms to grab Abby from me and then seeing her and Dad run with Abby out of the house. As I type this blog those memories, as well as emotions, are returning and I can't help but think again how lucky I am. I have parents that were able to provide me with a life and home inside of that house for almost 25 years...and I have parents that were able to immediately get my daughter to safety so that Eric and I will be able to provide her a life and home for her first 25 years. I've always listened and wondered when people talk about knowing God was in their lives and how He worked...I saw it first hand through a tragedy that underscored how blessed we really are.