From This Side of Thirty: Blessings and Idiots in a Tornado

A little over 50 of you liked and commented... And although the outpouring of support from my dear followers was encouraging and endearing, I was thrilled to spend my evening sleeping sleep and not writing words. You see, that week was supposed to be our last week of homeschool. I intended to wrap things up and prepare to dive straight into summer as June made its debut. However, Mother Nature had other plans. (I don’t believe in a mother named nature, but it sounded good. God. He had the plan.) So we spent the week doing absolutely nothing we needed to and a lot of useless recreation and leisure. Which explains why writing took the back burner on my priorities list.

See what had happened was…

It was the close to our Memorial Day Weekend 2015. The year it rained and rained and forgot to stop raining. Our sweet family of 4 hosted my dad and stepmom for dinner. Dad had fish. Justin can cook anything. Perfect recipe for a fish fry.

As we sat on the porch listening to the thunder in the distance, Ramzee and Ole Jus loaded up on our Honda to clean the fish about 50 yards behind the house. A few minutes into their adventure dad pointed out that the lightning was really kickin’ it up a notch. Then, through a series of mostly gestures and winky blinks, dad told me I should get them back home and out of the pasture.

I screamed, “Hey! Its lightning-ing!” They waved and kept to cleaning fish.

I’ll be generous and say dad waited an entire minute before the gestures started up again so…, “Hey! Come back! LOTS OF LIGHTNING!” Ole Jus waited exactly long enough between my screams and the time he decided to head back that it was clear he was coming home on his own free will…not because I had suggested he save the lives of our youngest daughter and himself. He relocated the fish gutting operation to our porch.

As the lightning got worse and it started to sprinkle we moved inside and I turned on the TV. Our beloved meteorologist Mark Scirto (Who I once recognized by his voice in Chick-fil-A) had interrupted our regularly scheduled programming to bring us crucial weather related information. Within seconds of turning on the TV I hear, “Residents of Cuney and Cove Springs should be in a windowless interior room taking cover.”

GUESS WHO IS STANDING IN THE BLESSED HEART OF CUNEY, TEXAS!?!?

That was dramatic. We are 1 mile south.

“The storm has confirmed circulation. It is moving East Northeast. It will be in Cuney in 11 minutes. Take cover.”

I very calmly walk to the door, lean out and say, “Um Jus, I think there is a tornado coming and maybe you shouldn’t be standing outside when disaster strikes.”

He dropped everything he was doing left the fish and swept us into the closet under the stairs. Except the opposite of that... He said, “Ok.” He couldn't have been more nonchalant about it! Ugh!

(I knew he would do that!!! He doesn’t get worked up about much of anything, especially not weather. But his mommy says he wasn’t always that way…fraidy cat)

I’m back inside pretending to not freak out a lot. Mr. Scirto warns, “There is circulation in Pert and it is about to cross the Neches River.

Funny, we live on a ranch called NECHES RIVER RANCH! I’ve added a map so that you can get the full effect here. Pert is the red dot. My house is the purple dot. The river is between the dots. STORM GOING EAST NORTHEAST!

I’m leaning out the door again putting on my best it’s-all-good face. “Hey Jus, they said the storm is in Pert and it’s about to cross the river. Do you think we should get in the closet? I think we will get in the closet.”

“Honey! I’m looking straight that direction! I’ll see it coming. If I come running to get in the closet then you’ll know it’s serious out here.”

I take the kids and put them in the closet. Ramzee is upset. I can’t imagine why. I’m still going with my it’s-all-good demeanor. I stand in the closet doorway watching Mark Scirto warn and direct people to shelter over and over again which I now know is for idiots that think they can SEE A TORNADO COMING! Someone whose name rhymes with Mold Dust.

Apparently all of the fish in our county have been cleaned and prepped because Ole Jus walks indoors...finally. YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS. He takes one look at the radar and Mr. Scirto’s pointer finger and says without any variation of excitement whatsoever, “Oh. I think we should get in the closet.”

YOU THINK WE SHOULD GET IN THE CLOSET? Huh? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR ALMOST 11 MINUTES!

He never actually made a break for the closet, but was set to head in that direction if need be. My dad and stepmom had mapped out shelter in another closet in the event windows were shattering and the roof was being ripped to shreds.

Keeping lil’ Zane in that closet was like trying to keep a newborn in the womb. And why would he want to stay in there? HIS DAD WASN’T DOING IT! I stood in the closet doorway, the other adults in the kitchen. We watched the storm blow in and blow over. We managed to make it out unscathed.

School was cancelled for 2 days due to power outages and bus routes rendered impassable. What kind of mother would I be if I made my kids do schoolwork in the aftermath of such a tragic event? We spent the week sharing our electricity with those who were without. My brother, sis-in-love and 2 precious nieces stayed a few nights. We even had one night with Cass and her boys.

That night after the storm departed, I took the kids out to assess the damage. We drove around the ranch and looked in awe and wonder at trees that had stood for a hundred years ripped from their root systems. The flood waters and the paths thru the pastures and dirt roads they have carved during our year of record rainfall. We only had 1 tree down on our acreage, but many more on the ranch.

By the time we ended up back home God had set the sky ablaze. After an evening of watches, warnings, shelter and fright, the storm had passed. We all breathed a sigh of relief. And by the looks of social media many East Texans stopped to appreciate the genius of God’s incredible sunset at the end of that Memorial Day.

I stood on the back porch trying to capture the moment. Over my shoulder I hear, "A picture won't do that justice." Unfortunately, Ole Jus was right. These photos only convey a small percentage of the excellent radiance the sky offered that night.

Without the severe weather a few hours prior, the beauty of this sky couldn’t have been possible. It was the exact recipe and mix of precise ingredients that brought us the colors and magnificence on the horizon. God executed the winds, rain, circulation, temperature, curvature of our planet, the tilt of its axis at that very moment to create the sky we marveled. Having to endure the terror and destruction of the storm, I am still thankful for every single moment of wonder and awe at His marvelous creation…FROM THIS SIDE OF THIRTY.