At times life hits us right smack between the eyes, leaving us reeling. Some never recover as they look at the damage. Others pick themselves up, dust off and address the damage one bit at a time.
I know plenty of folks with enough reasons to legitimately sit down in defeat or walk away from the damage left by life’s storms. Recently I met a couple who in two years time survived two devastating hurricanes that hit Lake Charles in 2000, family deaths and major damages to their home and business.
It began with the Hurricane Laura swooping in just as the community tentatively began re-opening after Covid quarantines. After weeks of being told to stay home, suddenly every news station warned against staying home to ride out the hurricane.
The Mrs. packed a bag, traveled away from the storm and went to her mother’s house. Her husband stayed. He covered all the windows with sheets of plywood before hunkering down to ride out the storm in their old brick two-story house.
When the storms hit he said, “I could see the plywood pull away from the window in a wave and then snap back. With all the stretching and bending I thought it would fly away. Then when it snapped back I thought it would break the windows.”
The plywood, the windows, the house and the husband survived first Hurricane Laura and then Delta with only the chimney and the roof being damaged by the first storm and the upper story drenched in the second storm. His mom-in-law’s much smaller house also needed extensive repairs.
Mom went to stay with her son for a couple of months. Husband and wife got busy working on both houses. Houses all around them suffered similar damages.
The storm also swept into the flea market where the Mrs. said, “I had three booths at the front of the flea market. The storm blew out the windows and blew away everything in my booths. I’m glad the building held.”
The second storm, Delta, drenched the inside of their upper stories with rain. Across Lake Charles for months and years, blue tarps highlighted roof damage and the difficulty in getting materials and roofers to repair the roofs.
Up and down the streets of the neighborhood, the Mr. and Mrs. saw piles of storm damaged furniture set on the curb for the city trash compacting trucks. With her business of selling vintage and restored furniture, the Mrs. said, “we will never again have an opportunity like this.” They regularly toured the curbs for quality, storm damage furniture to take home to repair and sell. Proving the old adage, “it is an ill wind that blows no good.” The natural disasters brought opportunities for some.
Meanwhile, the family kept abreast of the medical reports for the brother of The Mrs. Several years before, he had been told he would have five years at most to live. The five years passed plus two more. In the seventh year, as the house repairs progressed, his health declined.
“We miss my brother,” said The Mrs., “But I told Mom, ‘just think, you had two months of living with your son because of the storm.’” Rebuilding after a storm is certainly not the way most would choose for more family time together, yet The Mrs. could see the blessing in the midst of the catastrophes.
Slowly but surely the community and the family restored their homes and lives to some semblance of what it was. Blue tarps still top a few roofs awaiting repairs. Not all chimneys have been rebuilt. Still at this one home, a determination to find the silver linings have removed the clouds of despair that threatened to settle over everything.