When Christie and Heather were very young, we had a neighbor who became our "Stockton Grandma." Sister Holsworth lived a couple of houses down the street. She had a cat named "Baby Girl" and a dog whose name I don't remember. We didn't have pets yet and Christie absolutely loved visiting Sister Holsworth's home and playing with her pets. There were a couple of mornings when the doorbell would ring--very early in the morning I might add--and there was Sister Holworth standing on the doorstep with Christie beside her. Sometimes Christie would still be wearing her nightgown, her bare little feet curled from touching the cold concrete. She had slipped out of the house to visit her special friends. I would thank Sister Holsworth for bringing her back home and try to help Christie understand that we didn't visit people before breakfast. I'm sure Sister Holsworth wondered what kind of parent I was at times.
We had Sister Holsworth over for dinner occasionally. We sat near her at church. At least twice we had her over for our Christmas Eve festivities--a special dinner and acting out the nativity. We were not only neighbors, but became good friends.
When Heather was about a year old and Christie was about five, Sister Holsworth asked me to drive her to the Sacramento airport. She said we could take her car. I'm sure she suspected that we didn't have a lot of money to pay for an extra tank of gas. I was a little nervous about driving to Sacramento with two little girls--the trip up wouldn't be so bad but returning home without an extra adult was going to be a little trickier. Yet, Sister Holsworth was my friend and I was happy to help out.
The appointed day came. Her car was unusual. It looked like a car but it had only one long bench seat with a covered cab in back. It was a mixture of a car and a truck. There were only three seat belts in the car and four passengers. This was before the very strict seat belt laws so I sat in the driver's seat, Heather was strapped into her car seat which was in the middle, and Sister Holsworth held Christie on her lap.
Soon after I entered Highway 5 I noticed the car seemed sluggish. I pushed down on the accelerator. Nothing happened. In fact, we started going even slower.
"Something's wrong, " I said. "We are losing power." I carefully pulled over to the shoulder of the road. As soon as I stopped, thick, dark smoke filled the cab. I literally could not see the other passengers in the car! Flames were shooting out of the hood. The car was on fire!
Sister Holsworth opened her door and pushed Christie off her lap. She fell in a heap on the ground and began crying. Meanwhile, I was trying to unbuckle Heather from her car seat. I was struggling to undo the latch as we were breathing in smoke. Sister Holsworth was finally able to free Heather and I grabbed her and exited the other door. Before our eyes her car was in flames. A truck driver going the opposite direction on Highway 5 stopped, ran across all the lanes of the freeway with a fire extinguisher in an attempt to put the fire out. It was too late. The car was a total loss.
After the CHP arrived, he placed us safely in his car and then called Ron at work to come and pick us up. Sister Holsworth never did make it to the airport that day. I don't know if she ever found out why her car suddenly caught on fire either. The situation caused a few nightmares, but I was extremely grateful that we were all safe. I was also very grateful that Sister Holsworth--with her arthritic hands was able to get Heather out of her car seat when my own nerves made it practically impossible.
And so in the Spirit of Thanksgiving--thank you, Sister Holsworth. Wherever you are.
Showing posts with label misery makes memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misery makes memories. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Suviving the BIG One!
For days our weather forecasters had breathlessly reported the BIG upcoming storm.
"We have a BIG storm coming! You NEED to spend this weekend preparing for it. Clean up your yard. Make sure leaves won't clog storm drains. It's going to be BIG!"
We haven't had rain in a while so I was excited. YEAH! We have a BIG storm coming!
Monday evening I spoke to Ron and mentioned the BIG one coming. "They are talking about power outages. I really need to learn how to use the BBQ in case we don't have power." Ron reassured me it wasn't difficult.
Early Tuesday morning I could tell the BIG storm was coming. The wind was howling. The rain was falling. I felt warm and cozy in my little home.
I planned my day. Clean the house. Pay the bills. Watch the BYU devotional. Work on my Independent Study lesson. Teach a piano lesson. Run to the library and post office. Make a yummy dinner.
My plans soon changed. We lost our power at 8:15 am. Remember that time. It is important. 8:15 am. My hair was still damp.
I kept busy. I cleaned my house as well as I could in the dark. I paid the bills. I planned my weekly menus and wrote out my grocery list. The power was still out. I read my textbook. I did as much of the lesson as I could without the use of a computer. The power was still out.
I called the power company at 9:00. I called the power company at 11:00. I called the power company at noon. Still the power was out.
Library books were due. Emily and I manually opened the garage door. I bundled up against the torrential rain and gusty winds and BRAVED the elements by MYSELF! Emily refused to come with me because SHE TOO didn't have her hair done. I drove around fallen tree limbs, standing water, and other hazards. My hair looked pretty horrible so I dashed into the library, dropped off the due books, picked up the reserved book, and quickly left before I ran into anyone I knew.
My exciting moment at the library was witnessing the confrontation between two drivers. One driver had been rear-ended by another driver and the hitter would not give his ID to the hittee. (Is that even a word? Well, it is now!) I let the library security guy know that he was needed in the parking lot NOW! He was thrilled by my Good Samaritan interest.
It was now 2:30 pm. The power had been off since when? POP QUIZ everyone! That's right. 8:15 am. At 2:30 we still had NO POWER!
I canceled the piano lesson. The temperature inside our house was getting a little uncomfortable. Now what could I do? Stared outside the window. Check. Wandered around the house. Check. Foraged for non-perishable food to keep from opening the refrigerator. Check. Stared at a spider to see if it was dead. Check. Poke at the spider to see if it was REALLY dead. Check. Called the power company several more times. Check. Check. Check. Pulled out a library book to read. Check. Watched Comcast install a generator in our neighbors yard. Check. Now it was 2:45. Still no power.
I told Emily I had some OLD chocolate. She was interested. "How old?" Christmas stocking old. She whooped. She hollered. She pulled out Sequence. Whoever won the game got a piece of ancient chocolate. She won. She won again. We were bored with Sequence. It was now 3:30 pm. Still no power.
Emily said, "We need to play Life." I was not too thrilled. But, the electronic version isn't bad. In fact, I think Emily and I should play this game EVERY WEEK mainly so I can redeem myself. Yes, she beat me BAD! We played. We played some more. We played for nearly three hours. Still no power.
Ron finally came home! He brought dinner! He is my hero! I didn't have to forage for non-perishable food any longer. We ate. We talked. We cleaned up. It was time for Emily and Ron to attend their church meetings. Still no power!
I read by lantern light. I did a Sudoku puzzle by lantern light. I wandered the rapidly darkening house by lantern light. I called the power company again. Still no power.
Ron came home. Emily came home. Our good friends rescued our perishable food and stuck it in their extra refrigerator and freezer. It's finally time for bed. Still no power.
I woke up at 1:00 am. SOMETHING woke me up! My heart fluttered! Did we have power? I opened my eyes to a VERY dark house. No little green power light from the cordless phone. No flashing lights from the radio. Still no power.
Ron got up at 4:45 am to get ready for work. I groaned. Still no power. Were we doomed to go another full day without power? Half hour later the lights came on in all their glory! Twenty-one hours after the power went out the refrigerator was humming, the freezer was playing catch up, the lights were humming, the cordless phones were recharging. We rejoiced. We danced. We raced to the computer to check our e-mail.
And that is how we survived the BIG storm of 2009.
"We have a BIG storm coming! You NEED to spend this weekend preparing for it. Clean up your yard. Make sure leaves won't clog storm drains. It's going to be BIG!"
We haven't had rain in a while so I was excited. YEAH! We have a BIG storm coming!
Monday evening I spoke to Ron and mentioned the BIG one coming. "They are talking about power outages. I really need to learn how to use the BBQ in case we don't have power." Ron reassured me it wasn't difficult.
Early Tuesday morning I could tell the BIG storm was coming. The wind was howling. The rain was falling. I felt warm and cozy in my little home.
I planned my day. Clean the house. Pay the bills. Watch the BYU devotional. Work on my Independent Study lesson. Teach a piano lesson. Run to the library and post office. Make a yummy dinner.
My plans soon changed. We lost our power at 8:15 am. Remember that time. It is important. 8:15 am. My hair was still damp.
I kept busy. I cleaned my house as well as I could in the dark. I paid the bills. I planned my weekly menus and wrote out my grocery list. The power was still out. I read my textbook. I did as much of the lesson as I could without the use of a computer. The power was still out.
I called the power company at 9:00. I called the power company at 11:00. I called the power company at noon. Still the power was out.
Library books were due. Emily and I manually opened the garage door. I bundled up against the torrential rain and gusty winds and BRAVED the elements by MYSELF! Emily refused to come with me because SHE TOO didn't have her hair done. I drove around fallen tree limbs, standing water, and other hazards. My hair looked pretty horrible so I dashed into the library, dropped off the due books, picked up the reserved book, and quickly left before I ran into anyone I knew.
My exciting moment at the library was witnessing the confrontation between two drivers. One driver had been rear-ended by another driver and the hitter would not give his ID to the hittee. (Is that even a word? Well, it is now!) I let the library security guy know that he was needed in the parking lot NOW! He was thrilled by my Good Samaritan interest.
It was now 2:30 pm. The power had been off since when? POP QUIZ everyone! That's right. 8:15 am. At 2:30 we still had NO POWER!
I canceled the piano lesson. The temperature inside our house was getting a little uncomfortable. Now what could I do? Stared outside the window. Check. Wandered around the house. Check. Foraged for non-perishable food to keep from opening the refrigerator. Check. Stared at a spider to see if it was dead. Check. Poke at the spider to see if it was REALLY dead. Check. Called the power company several more times. Check. Check. Check. Pulled out a library book to read. Check. Watched Comcast install a generator in our neighbors yard. Check. Now it was 2:45. Still no power.
I told Emily I had some OLD chocolate. She was interested. "How old?" Christmas stocking old. She whooped. She hollered. She pulled out Sequence. Whoever won the game got a piece of ancient chocolate. She won. She won again. We were bored with Sequence. It was now 3:30 pm. Still no power.
Emily said, "We need to play Life." I was not too thrilled. But, the electronic version isn't bad. In fact, I think Emily and I should play this game EVERY WEEK mainly so I can redeem myself. Yes, she beat me BAD! We played. We played some more. We played for nearly three hours. Still no power.
Ron finally came home! He brought dinner! He is my hero! I didn't have to forage for non-perishable food any longer. We ate. We talked. We cleaned up. It was time for Emily and Ron to attend their church meetings. Still no power!
I read by lantern light. I did a Sudoku puzzle by lantern light. I wandered the rapidly darkening house by lantern light. I called the power company again. Still no power.
Ron came home. Emily came home. Our good friends rescued our perishable food and stuck it in their extra refrigerator and freezer. It's finally time for bed. Still no power.
I woke up at 1:00 am. SOMETHING woke me up! My heart fluttered! Did we have power? I opened my eyes to a VERY dark house. No little green power light from the cordless phone. No flashing lights from the radio. Still no power.
Ron got up at 4:45 am to get ready for work. I groaned. Still no power. Were we doomed to go another full day without power? Half hour later the lights came on in all their glory! Twenty-one hours after the power went out the refrigerator was humming, the freezer was playing catch up, the lights were humming, the cordless phones were recharging. We rejoiced. We danced. We raced to the computer to check our e-mail.
And that is how we survived the BIG storm of 2009.
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