As IKE approached Houston my parents and grandparents decided to weather the storm. They tracked the hurricane as is got closer and inching its way through the Gulf of Mexico. As people were evacuating making a seven hour trek to Austin, Mom and Baba were stocking up the cabinets with water, food and probably making their last stop at Starbuck's for a few days.We checked in several times on Friday. Jake, my middle son, was very conserned about Nana and Papa and wanted them to be with us. That is where you want the people that you love when they are going through a struggle right next to you. Nana and Papa had decided to stay.
We woke up Saturday morning to sureal cool breezy weather. It was still and beautiful. I called mother. When I heard her voice I knew that they had a night. She told me what had happened. They slept down stairs in my grandparents apartment, they live on the first floor. They prepared a safe place in the hallway in the interior of the high rise, just in case the storm got out of control. At 4:00 in the morning IKE did just that. Mom said that they all met in the living room at the same time as the storm began to rage. It is time. They moved to the hall. They spent the next six hours huddling in the hallway with neighbors listening to what my mother called, "a wicked storm." She told me that the storm sucked the doors to Baba and Granddaddy's patio right off the hinges and were no where to be found. They could not check to see how the damage was escalating on listening to IKE dismantel their home.
"the Lord giveth and taketh away"
My grandmother is such an amazing women. She always sees the light in a dark situation. She kept everyone spirits up by calling attention to the fact that they were one the the 1% of Houstonians that had power. As she sipped on her morning black coffee made with the luxury of a coffee pot that would turn on she visited with my mother about how scarey it would have been if they were enduring this storm in the dark.
"Pierce the Darkness" "In him no darkness at all"
Baba has always told me "find Joy in all things" She really lives this. The neighbors have a new connection with each other because of what they went through together. I want that for my neighborhood. Struggle comes, we ban together. If something happens to one of us it happens to all of us. We huddle in prayer, praising God for the light (and coffee) we have. This fills us with hope and enables us to press into the aftermath the storm left behind.
At 10:00am they opened the door to Baba and Grandaddy's apartment. The massive force of this storm raged for six hours. It ripped the doors off and tormented the peaceful home with wind and rain. It left its mark, as if to say I have been here. I have stripped you and left you covered in silt and mud. Soaked in six inched of water every memory shrouded in filt. My sweet grandmother smiles and says "I was needing to get these carpets cleaned".
The peace you had looking at the storm. Then get the heck out of there. Trying to close the door as the storm was trying suck him out. Lamar Tower of Power. People of all faiths.
