The Day the Sky Turned Black

It was just another day on that September evening in 2010.  September 16, 2010 around 6:40PM seems to stick in my mind.  I was glad to be home after I'd been called in to teach Kindergarten that day and we had just eaten supper.  I walked in the living room and as I glanced out the window the sky was black. I said to Brent, "Hey, look at the sky!  Are there storm warnings out?"  He said. "Yea, I think so." The windows had been opened due to the cool pleasant weather we'd been having so I thought it was a good idea to shut them. The wind seemed to pick up suddenly as I hurried through the house securing the windows and as I got to the kitchen, Brent yelled, "Hit the floor!"  As I did that sound you hear about when a tornado hits, happened to us.  I couldn't believe this was happening right here on our little farm. I got up on my knees and looked out the storm door of the kitchen and debris was flying by sideways. Brent yelled, "There goes the front porch!" With the wind howling and everything whizzing by, suddenly all I could think about was my son, Brian.  Had he walked out in the woods?  Even though he was 26 years old I was in a panic wondering where he was. After several minutes he came running in the door asking if everyone was OK and luckily he'd been in the garage and watched the whole thing take place.  Thank God, because the garage stayed together and only suffered a little damage to the roof.  I was so relieved to see his face as I got up from the floor and just grabbed and hugged him around the neck. When we walked outside I saw total destruction of most everything except the chicken coop.  The roof on the barn and the Little House where Dorothy, my Mother-in-law lived, was partially to completely gone. We were relieved she wasn't there during the storm. Trees were broken in half with limbs and leaves covering the ground.  Porch roofs were gone and anything that used to be in our yard had disappeared.  Huge tree limbs were now inside our house sticking through the broken windows. Our chimney was on the ground but thankfully the roof to our house was still there. It actually reminded me of what a war zone may look like, or at least the ones I've seen in movies.  There was a silence in the air as we walked around the farm and the dark clouds in the sky were brightening as the storm passed by.  It's one of those things you think will never happen to you.  A tornado in Ohio in September, how could that be?  We really didn't have a clue what to do next.  I went back inside the house and started picking up leaves, tree limbs and broken glass.  During this ordeal I never cried until look after it was over.  After seeing Brian's face and knowing he was fine nothing else mattered to me.  It was something we could fix, replace and deal with. If he'd been in the woods where the storm went by, well, I don't want to think what could have happened.  We found things in the woods months later that had been picked up by the wind and taken into the woods. The months it took to pick up, estimate, get insurance claims figured out, tear down, and rebuild was stressful and at times frustrating.  But we did it and two years later we tore down the Little House due to the extensive damage. Thanksgiving Day of 2012 was bittersweet. We had our Thanksgiving dinner and then I watched as Brian and Brent tore the house down that had brought so much joy to so many people on many Thanksgiving Days.  Even though so much of the damage has been cleaned up, I can still see trees broken in half on the fence line when I look out my kitchen door.  Maybe it's still there as a reminder to make the most of each day because you just never know what will happen when the sky turns black.