Friday April 29--The day of acceptance

Shirley found her checkbook!

We found your umbrella, Shirley!

Shirley's clock stopped at 4:25.


Shirley posed beside the toilet she "rode out the storm" with.

View of Shirley's next door neighbor's house.

Shirley is in the market for a new car.

Tabatha serving lunch to the family.

Total destruction everywhere.


We found some photos and Shirley's certificate she got after taking the hot air balloon ride in Turkey.

Friday April 29
Friday was the day of acceptance. There is nothing we can do about the situation as it is, so it is time to get down to accepting and working through it. Of course there was no school on Friday, either. Still no power, of course, so what we can do is extremely limited. There are no newspapers in the area that are able to print, and we have extremely limited exposure to news other than local reports of storm damage and people requesting help. Did that much-publicized “Royal Wedding” actually take place???

We started the day at Shirley’s house…or where Shirley’s house used to be. The destruction was total, but Shirley is a survivor and has a wonderful attitude. Several others showed up to help her sort through things and see if she could salvage anything. Someone found her mother’s ring, her Bible, some of her china that had not been broken, and more things than we thought we would find that could be saved and used. Shirley even posed with the toilet she “rode” out the storm with! Incidentally, Susan, if you are reading this, you might begin to look for another car for Shrley! We think she will be in the market soon.

People are so generous in times of tragedy. About noon some ladies came by pulling a wagon. They had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, had bags of chips, cold water bottles, and they were going through the worst-hit neighborhoods giving out food to the workers. Those of us at Shirley’s really appreciated their generosity.

We had a few exciting moments at Shirley’s when we would find some object we thought might have been lost. We had some moments of humor such as when Anthony found Shirley’s umbrella…perfect except for no fabric on it. My meltdown came when I found Shirley’s notes she used when she talked to my Salt Shaker girls three years ago about “How to Serve God Regardless of My Situation in Life”. I found the notes and looked around me to see Sarah and Olivia, who were there to listen to Shirley’s talk that day…and now the same girls were helping her pick through her belongings at her destroyed house.

Daryl cooked chicken during the day. They took some chicken to Shirley and the family she is staying with, and we all went to Barbara Jo and Norm’s house again to eat Daryl’s delicious chicken for dinner…being careful to be home by curfew.

The National Guard has moved into our area. If we leave the disaster area ,we have to show our driver’s license with our address on it to get back into our area. When we returned from Barbara Jo’s house this evening we asked how long they will be checking identifications at the end of our road. He said they would be there all night, which is comforting in the pitch black darkness of our area.

We hooked our generator up to our TV for a little while tonight and they showed several photos of Shirley’s house and car when covering the damage in the East Limestone area. The news pointed out something we had not thought of prior to this time. The tornado that leveled things in our area missed the Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant by just one mile! I dare not think about what that could have meant.

I hope to continue to post updates on what is going on in our family as it relates to the current tragedy.