She was sitting outside the building just staring and I’ll always regret not stopping for just a moment even though she had long been a pain in my ass . It’s doubtful I’ll have the opportunity again .
I was driving through a neighborhood the other day when suddenly everything seemed almost normal as the houses appeared untouched . The illusion that all was as it was before the hurricane was quickly shattered by the sight of a 32 ft motor home home rubber side up in a canal 30 ft. from the road. Then it was instantly back to the normal endless piles of roadside debris reminiscent of winter snow banks up north .
The sights are unpleasant and everywhere. Vegetation and destroyed fences and car ports , parts of homes and peoples possessions all heaped up in readiness of the very long wait to be hauled to the dump . At one street corner a large child’s doll sat headless on a three legged lawn chair and on the next block a dolls head was mounted to a broomstick upright on a lawn . I’ve often been grateful to have had opportunity in my life to see wonderful things most other men never will , but then again the pendulum always swings the other way and I’ve seen ugliness that most won’t either as have all my neighbors.
I remember a refugee woman with two children sitting outside a mud and tin building after having walked for many days to escape a war in Afghanistan . There was no doubt of the uncertainty of their future on her blank face and years later I saw that same face on another refugee in South America . Many indigenous tribes in isolated areas were displaced by violence and there she sat on the sidewalk of a Colombian city with her children and that same uncertainty on her face …
Wife and I drove past a condominium five days after Hurricane Ian completely devastated it . It’s roof was gone no electricity and parts of other buildings were heaped around it while an elderly woman sat outside it alone . Her home destroyed she faced the inevitable need to leave with no place to go . From the distance of the road I once again recognized the blank and uncertain face of a refugee but this time it was right here in America . Hurricane Ian , like similar storms , has given us our own problem of countless displaced people ….. I hope we aren’t as heartless to our own as we seem to be to others .
Maybe we should offer our own refugees free flights to Martha’s Vineyard ….
Good bye Edith , I wish you well
