It is interesting how guilt creeps it’s way into our lives during times of tragedy. Valerie and I just returned from trying to secure and clean up our little “Coastal Cottage” in Englewood, Florida. Our little beach town was hit extremely hard and our neighborhood was absolutely decimated. Our winter home is likely beyond repair. Roof gone, carport and laundry room a pile of rubble, the lanai blown to pieces, significant water damage with concerns for rapid mold growth. We are the third generation to own and enjoy this home. My grandparents were the original owners, then my parents, then us as we bought it from mom and dad in 2015. Valerie spent three years lovingly renovating it. But it is a winter home not our primary home that we love and enjoy in Indiana. We have several wonderful Florida neighbors/friends who are “Full Timers”, not “Snow Birds” like us. It is all they have. It was both disheartening and demoralizing to drive into the neighborhood each day this week. But we get to drive away, they don’t. That is where the guilt creeps in.
This is so timely for me in so many ways, Tamela. I still remember waking up right after you came back into Stuckey and discovering not long after that my own car was a lost cause. I am writing about my family in Hurricane Agnes and the flood of 72 in northern Appalachia (the Southern Tier of NYS, to be specific), which is now leading me to unearth stuff about a previous flood in 1935 (and another in 1916, and another in the 1890s...) . I also really resonate with your descriptions of residual trauma and survivor's guilt. This stuff is real. Thank you for putting words on it.
It is interesting how guilt creeps it’s way into our lives during times of tragedy. Valerie and I just returned from trying to secure and clean up our little “Coastal Cottage” in Englewood, Florida. Our little beach town was hit extremely hard and our neighborhood was absolutely decimated. Our winter home is likely beyond repair. Roof gone, carport and laundry room a pile of rubble, the lanai blown to pieces, significant water damage with concerns for rapid mold growth. We are the third generation to own and enjoy this home. My grandparents were the original owners, then my parents, then us as we bought it from mom and dad in 2015. Valerie spent three years lovingly renovating it. But it is a winter home not our primary home that we love and enjoy in Indiana. We have several wonderful Florida neighbors/friends who are “Full Timers”, not “Snow Birds” like us. It is all they have. It was both disheartening and demoralizing to drive into the neighborhood each day this week. But we get to drive away, they don’t. That is where the guilt creeps in.
Tom and Valerie Davis
This is so timely for me in so many ways, Tamela. I still remember waking up right after you came back into Stuckey and discovering not long after that my own car was a lost cause. I am writing about my family in Hurricane Agnes and the flood of 72 in northern Appalachia (the Southern Tier of NYS, to be specific), which is now leading me to unearth stuff about a previous flood in 1935 (and another in 1916, and another in the 1890s...) . I also really resonate with your descriptions of residual trauma and survivor's guilt. This stuff is real. Thank you for putting words on it.