The Flood

29 years ago, my family was enjoying dinner and my older brother’s last memory before we had to evacuate was setting the timer on the microwave for dinner.

We had little time to gather our belongings, our home was right in line for the worst of it. The coming days would be a mud covered reminder of what we had lost.

Back in 1985, one of the largest natural disasters I’ve lived through, swept through my town and destroyed one of my childhood homes.

Every shred of evidence of my existence prior to that day, had been taken by angry flood waters. The flood washed away my entire home and the homes of many others in our entire county.

The town I lived in was entirely levelled. After the flood waters receded, all that was left was muddy and bacteria covered fragments of the entire lives of one small town.

I lost my childhood toy, “Don da Bear” and after being on the news, a lovely couple from Michigan sent me a new stuffed animal and baby blanket. I still sleep with that blanket to remind me of the kindness of strangers.

One of the biggest things my parents both my mother and father ever did was during the months following the flood. Immediately we lived in a farmhouse with no running water or electricity. I literally used a chamber pot at night and an out house in the day. I even got myself shocked good on an electric fence that had power, but the house did not. After that, a trailer park.,

That whole time, my mother and father gave selfless amounts of hours to help all of our neighbours pick up the pieces, search for missing photos, rebuild lawns, and clear up mud and trash.

Years later she still took walks by the river to find neighbour’s “treasures” so that she could return them to their rightful owners.

I’m proud of my mom and dad, losing everything taught me how wonderful they truly were.