There is no way I can answer everyone who has posted, I have no computer/internet/email. I want everyone to know how much I appreciate every comment, every view, every phone call, and people like Charlene (Geema's Wonderings) and Paula/Glen, Dee/Greg, Hunter. The men and their wives from Archrock who spent the day tearing my house down, making us choose what to keep and what to let go of. They all, all 14 of them, lost everything at least once in Katrina or Isaac or the last great flood.
My amazing daughter Carrie who has worked tirelessly every day to keep us together, focused, moving. She saved us, she got us contractors, told us to make phone calls, to eat, to live.
I owe her our lives.
We had the electrician come and run a dedicated line from our power box for the house to the camper. Temporary, but it keeps it from tripping anything inside the house and gives us steady power to the camper. The house is now overloaded with 4 HUGE ass DE-humidifiers. At one point we thought the AC in the camper had broken, but it was just a worker who unplugged us from the main. Whew! Don't need to live in the heat! Man!
We are beginning to wear out our welcome at some places. I need a place to bathe at least daily. If we need to I guess we can do showers in the yard! LOL - at least it is summer!
The triumph for today is that Frank didn't try to kill himself today, so that is looking up. His leg is looking good, his doctor appt is tomorrow morning. Hoping to get good news there. Staph is so scary, Ann nearly lost her leg a year ago.
The tragedy is the vacation I was so looking forward to, the Nova Scotia trip. I can't leave with the house and life in such disarray. It will be difficult to do in the final stages of construction. Valerie, I will miss the Springy Things this year. I promise we will come next year!
Richard and I attended a wake tonight for a woman from Baton Rouge (originally from here). Two of her sons and three of her grandchildren were all displaced by the flood in the BR area. Now they've lost their mom/grandmother. As they talked about their homes and things, they kept coming back to "and tomorrow we bury mom." Now that's fortitude.
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of strength you have. You may not feel like it, but you do. Everyday you share your story, which seems so difficult and impossible....except your story goes on and somehow you survive. You laugh, cry, have dinner with friends, shower somewhere, work on the house, move forward. I am amazed daily by your strength and perseverance. And you think you'd be useless in the apocalypse? Oh no! You're a "fight to the death" kind of gal. I can tell.
So happy that there are good people around you to help you through. After Hurricane Opal we came home 5 days after the storm to begin cleanup of our yard and the minor things that happened to our home. It was still overwhelming with no power no cable and iffy water. Some friends from church came over and helped take down the remainder of a tree way too close to the house. At the end of the day as I was so tired I could barely move the women who had disappeared at some point came back and said dinner was ready at one of their homes. It is a time we couldn't have had as successful an outcome without the people around us. They said wonderful things to prop us emotionally, did things both small and large that needed to be done and ultimately made it possible to get through a tough time. Our loss was not any where near the extreme of yours, but I found working beside someone and having someone check in made me feel loved and was a comfort beyond measure. Strength came from that caring and made me feel that I could do anything.
ReplyDeleteEvery post puts a lump in my throat...I have difficulty wrapping my head around the sweet hell you are dealing with...surviving...and yet you still make me chuckle. Things like this just don't happen here in Nova Scotia but if they did I'd want you on my team! I'd fight zombies along side of you anyway!
ReplyDeleteI love your spirit.
The Springy Things and I will wait for your visit...and we will CELEBRATE your triumph!
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ReplyDeleteYou are so much tougher than you think! Your human - you feel beaten down, you adjust, and come back stronger! Glad Frank did not hurt himself yesterday: let's hope today he stays safe again. I am sure putting the house back together will start turning the corner to completion soon. I think the first thing that I would push to get done is a bathroom so you could take a shower. Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteglad you have people helping you - that ceramic floor tiles look great - glad they were not damaged.
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