sol25 March 23 Multigenerational Encampment

 

Yesterday, Trish, who blogs at Jump Off and Find Wings wrote about the Jersey shore devastation from Superstorm Sandy twelve years ago. Her story spurred my memory. 

As the hurricane slowed on its journey up the East Coast, it was downgraded and we sighed in relief.  I lived on top of a mountain, at the time, and frequent, days long, power outages were normal! 

The rains and winds, for us, were minimal, but for others, the stalled storm pulled up trees, took down power, washed away homes, and disrupted lives in ways that no one could have imagined.

Here's where the story gets interesting. My power was fine and damage was nil. However, my school, closer to new York City, was out of power for over a week. My elderly Mother and my Aunt, who lived closer to New York City were also out for over a week!

Somehow, I moved them into my house filling the living room with mattresses and finding ways to make my home a bit more accessible. We watched CSI and endless movies.  We tracked power outage maps and called phone numbers hoping the answering machines would indicate power. There was lots of complaining about the "accommodations" and some tears.

Yet, the day I remember was when my niece, also out of power, came to "work" at the multigeneration encampment bringing their own (at the time) little ones, also out of school for the week. That was a once in a lifetime chance for crafting.  We made a "book fairy" costume (for me) for a holiday that would be cancelled because the power was still not back!  That day, there was some pizza (thank goodness for freezers), some smiles, and even a few laughs from each of us thrust into circumstances that would never happen again. No one could have ever predicted a non-hurricane storm that upended so many lives, nor could they have envisioned my mother and these two amazing girls spending the day gluing pictures and baubles for many hours!