A difference a year makes

Sorry folks it took so long for me to post here. I have been working through some things. I wanted to write, but not had the energy or focus to do it. Oddly, out of what appears to be nowhere, I had the urge to really write tonight.

Monday of last week, I stayed in town to help Mom with some yard work. We spent a few hours clearing the shrubbery along one fence line. Since my home was built on a treeless lot, it had been first time since we moved from her home that I done work like that. It was amazingly refreshing working with pruners, hacksaw and hedge clippers. Son helped also by clearing the cuttings from the driveway disposing in old metal trash can and larger pieces to curbside for pickup. Nearing the end as I helped him clear the heavier debris, I was suddenly reminded of the last time we were doing almost the same. That day was the one year anniversary of the Mother's Day Tornado 2008.

(click link below image for more pictures)

From Mother's Day 2008 Tornado

Flashbacks from that morning clouded my mind like the gloomy sky above. Being awakened by weather alert sirens...watching local new with live Doppler radar...hearing report of tornadic cell on path directly to us...losing power as I was leading my son to the nearest bathroom...pounding debris slamming against the house where son and my bedrooms were as I pulled son across his chest into the bathroom...waiting patiently for wind to calm as talked on cellphone to sister who lived not far away...in the darkened night, calmly waiting for dawn to access the impact...discovering the severed utility poles and enormous trees...utility lines strung haphazardly in front of property, fence to fence preventing exit...the days of clearing debris...return of utilities for semblance of previous living.

So many 'what-ifs' still plague my mind.
What if the tornado traveled a few hundred feet north of the path it took. We would not have received just the northern brunt of wind force but the entire destructive force.
What if my parents had not had the three tall pine trees removed years earlier? Would they have impaled the house as did others that were in the direct path of the twister?

I thank God the surviving the events of that day. Even though the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster, I am grateful to have lived it.