This past week was rough, emotionally and physically, for some more than others. Clare and I had the easiest jobs by far, her primary responsibility was to brighten the day of everyone around her, while mine was to look after her, and I think we were both successful. Clare worked on her walking and played with Gail’s butter tubs, she’s not a fan of her ceramic dogs, but is a fan of all the pretty pottery around the house.
Every evening after hours of work we all met for dinner, thank you to everyone for fixing, that job in itself was not small. I always enjoy sharing dinner with Jeff’s family, there is never a lack of conversation and someone always has something fun and or interesting to share about their day. On Tuesday evening we three sweets left early, the weather was predicted to be bad again and I wanted to be home in the basement before it hit; sure enough 5 minutes after we got home the sirens went off. We were safe in G&G’s basement while everyone else huddled in the Walker’s bathroom, I think Logan was most excited about the family bathroom experience J Thankfully the storm wasn’t too bad and passed without causing damage, Greg and Gail were home by 11.
After dinner on Tuesday I suggested another 5 Generation picture, this time I promised Gail that Clare wouldn’t have an accident in her lap J
As I'm sure you could guess, it's nearly impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.
Clare and her Great Great Grandma.
Clare loves her uncle Steve, he can make her laugh like nobody else can.
Dancing to her See-N-Say playing Farmer In The Dell. Am I the only one that knows all the verses to that song?
Wednesday Gail, Julie and Merrell spent the majority of their day at Ruth and Pauline’s digging thru what was left and recovering as many memories as possible. They found books that Ruth had read to Jeff when he was little, journals from 60 years ago, salt shaker collections, a safe that nobody could free from the crawl space and nobody knows the combination to, a scrapbook Merrell made in grade school and all sorts of other things. I can imagine it was both physically and emotionally difficult work. While working at Ruth’s Gail and Julie discovered that her plumbing still worked, how nice to be able to wash your hands after sifting through the dirt and mess ;)
Wednesday morning Jeff, Greg, Clare and I all went to Cinda's house to visit with Dale and Gene. Cinda was out working hard, plenty of people were calling for tree cutting jobs, but Satina was home keeping an eye on everyone.
Hey Grandpa, what's in your cup??
Hayden was more than happy to share his toys and show Clare how the big kid toys worked.
Nik has a really neat music set, Clare was pretty into the drum. Can you see the curls on the back of her head?
Jeff joined in the efforts on both Wednesday and Thursday, Clare and I stayed at G&G’s where we could take naps and watch TV; Clare watched her first episode of Oprah, too bad it was the final episode. We both enjoyed the last show, Oprah is an inspiring woman, I'll admit I felt good about life after watching, despite what was going on outside.
I asked Jeff to take the camera with him; he was able to capture some amazing pictures.
Ruth's house was once red, bet you didn't know that, I didn't.
From the backyard, you shouldn't be able to see Rang Line Rd, let alone far past that.
Pauline rode out the storm eating dinner at her kitchen table, she recalls hearing some wind and a bit of glass breaking.
Joplin High School
Thursday Gail stayed home for a much-needed emotional break, Clare was more than happy to help keep her busy. Jeff and Greg set out in the morning with a list of items to look for, plastic bins to fill and work gloves for picking thru the debris. They were successful in finding more books, Jeff’s baby quilt, a few pieces of furniture, papers, including an envelope labeled ‘Top Secret’ which had nothing in it, an old Scottie dog street number plaque, and a few other things.
Another item they found was the 2quart pail that John had bought for Jeff in 1975. Ruth and John had a number of pecan trees in their back yard, the story that I’ve been told is that John would shake the limbs of the tree to knock the pecans down and then Jeff would help pick them up, he was closest to the ground. John had a large 10quart pail and Jeff wanted one too, so he found a smaller version. You’d think that this would please Jeff, he could be just like his Great Grandpa, nope, Jeff wanted a big one just like Grandpa. Ruth loves to tell this story of Jeff, I may have heard it every time I visit, but I’ll never grow tired of hearing it. Ruth also likes to tell the story of when John would say, ‘where are you Jeff?’ and Jeff would reply ‘right behind you Grandpa, right behind you.’ When Jeff got the pail out of the car I immediately knew what it was, Gail saw that I was happy to see it and said that I could keep it, it may just be an old pail, but I’m absolutely thrilled to have it. She offered to clean it up, but I wouldn’t let her, the dirt is part of its history and story.
All week I couldn’t help but think about how devastating the tornado was to Joplin, so many families lost memories and homes, it was sobering to watch people picking thru piles of what is now their home. It made me realize that a lot of what is in my house is just ‘stuff’ and that stuff isn’t what really matters. Memories are what matter most, the handmade quilts, the photo albums, the 2quart pails, the favorite books from our childhood, the things that have meaning to me and my family, the things that money can’t buy. My heart breaks for all the families that were effected by this storm, I can’t begin to imagine how it feels and what is going thru the minds of those that lost everything, I hope that they can find their feet and begin to move forward. Joplin will be rebuilding for years, a bittersweet of the tragedy is the new things to come, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the city changes each time I visit.
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