It seemed like any ordinary trip to the grocery store - in fact it had only just started to think about raining when I pulled into the parking lot. After about 10 minutes of filling my cart with all the regular accoutrement's THOSE bells rang out - if your from the south, you know all to well what a tornado bell sounds like. Over the loud speaker, were ordered to abandon our shopping carts (I know right, abandon!) and head to the back of the store. With tornado sirens blazing we all blindly obeyed the voice and played follow the leader to the back of the store, in total silence. Once at the back of the store we looked at each other and one woman asked if someone was here to kill us.... huh? No one answered her - I think we were all thinking the same thing "Hey nut burger, don't you hear the tornado bells?" A tall man in a purple shirt escorted us through some double doors to the back storage area and had us file into their very large and very cold refrigerator, and then he shut the door.... for an hour. Some people began to hyper ventilate, and some seemed confused and showed it by asking a million questions, some shouted for everyone to be quiet, and some just worried about their kids (you can guess which one was me). After realizing they were not letting us out anytime soon, I decided to take a good look at all these strangers I was locked up with. Like a sociologist almost - I began observing these people of the community, in all their age groups and nationalities, facing a scary situation, and what conclusions could I come to - it was very.... interesting. I was standing by a 70 year old retired teacher and a hysterical Colombian woman who was convinced we were gonna die and a woman from Venezuela who didn't say a word in English - only Spanish and only to the Colombian lady. My dear Colombian friend was clearly Catholic and crossed herself about every 30 seconds, and in between she cried. The retired teacher and I tried our best to comfort her as she shared her story, her fears, her prayers. We all survived (well, I did and I imagine they did as well) and as strangers we bonded in that grocery store.
You gotta love the bible belt. Everyone was offering up prayers, and a particularly panicked woman who had socks on her hands, silenced us all and offered up a loud prayer of safety for us all - she was so thoughtful. Men got permission to run into the store and bring back water, food to eat, coats, shirts and socks to keep warm. My Colombian friend told me how much she loved this country - that in her country people would not have been so kind. I ate my oreos and snuggled into my Market street jacket that was clearly owned by a chain smoker, as my thoughts drifted again to my children, spread out at 3 different campus's, without me to protect them or comfort them, and I hoped they were not afraid, and then I started making a plan of how to get to them.
The first order of business as a mother, always, is to protect your babies. It is something innate - the whole mother bear thing is very real and comes from a place embedded deep down inside all mothers (and fathers too I assume, but, being a mother, I can only speak to that). I was willing and ready to take on this tornado and save my babies. All of them. My oldest baby, now 14 and 2 inches taller than me (who sent me a text that his school was on lock down and he was fine - he knows me well). My next baby, now 12, (who had forgot his phone, and who I couldn't reach and who heard all about it, after I found out he was fine), and the last two babies now 10 and 7 (who were at least in the same building, in the assumed "tuck and hide" tornado position with their heads on the floor of the bathroom at school). Grrr...
Once allowed to leave the freezer, I knew what to do.... I drove through the sheets of rain (with very limited visibility) to rescue my children.... only, that is not allowed during a tornado warning - no one told me that! When schools are on lock down, no one is allowed in and no one is allowed out. You can imagine how crazy that made me.
As a mother, who just drove through insane traffic in a storm to get to my kids, I found myself in the rain, locked out of the school, without my children. Not very happily, I went home and paced the floor until all 4 of my children were released and home safely!
We were fortunate, and still had a roof over our heads at the end of the day - unlike some of the neighboring communities. It made for interesting stories, shared around the dinner table that night. What do you eat after a day like this?..... ribs, cornbread and a Cesar salad ofcourse - a great post tornado dinner.
Look at those 2 trying on hats at Target - Adam apparently trying to bribe someone with his $1. Who wouldn't drive to the moon and back in a storm to rescue kids cute as these?.... even if they had pee on their heads from having to keep their head on the bathroom floor at school for an hour!
