Hurricane Angels

In August of 2004, the home I shared with my son and his family, was severely damaged by Hurricane Charlie. . After the storm, as we picked through our belongings, we were blessed to have been able to salvage many of our special treasures. While the furniture, televisions, stereo, computers and most of our clothing were all lost, five year old Cheyenne’s porcelain dolls, Patrick’s Harley Davidson Motorcycle Models and my collection of Angels somehow sustained little or no damage by the winds and the rain. Everything we were able to retrieve was put into a 5’ X 8” storage unit until we can get another home and start over. The last year has been hard on all of us as we struggled to rebuild our lives in temporary housing.

This year, the hurricane season has been the worst in recorded history. Each time another hurricane would develop, we found ourselves anxiously watching every news report. So far, our area has been completely storm free until the end of October, 2005. Then…. Hurricane Wilma popped up out of nowhere and went from being a Tropical Depression to a Category 5 hurricane in a little more than 12 hours. As the weather reports began warning our area of the impending storm, we all began making preparations to evacuate to a safer structure. Cheyenne, now 6 years old, became almost hysterical at the prospects of experiencing yet another storm. I took her into my lap and tried to explain to her that we were all going to be just fine. I told her that God had His Angels surrounding us to keep us safe from the storm. I thought I was doing a pretty good job at calming her fears until she stood up, put her hands on her hips and very firmly told me. “Gramma, all our Angels are packed in a box and locked up at the storage place….. Just how much help do you think they are going to be?”