To set the scene for this letter, please note that the fall of 1996 was a particularly active hurricane season.
I was on the Cape with Mom, J, and Jenn when Hurricane Edourad hit. Rather than getting stuck in the evacuation traffic, we stuck it out on-Cape. We hunkered down at the restaurant/hotel where J was employed for the summer. Jenn stayed in a hotel room and monitored the weather, while the rest of us worked at the restaurant. With limited power and supplies, we still did a whole breakfast shift: J as short-order line cook, Mom as hostess and busboy, and me as dishwasher (thanks years of McyDee's training!).
Once we got off Cape and began to settle back into life in CT, and as I prepared to head back to NY, another hurricane roared up the Coast, this time hitting North Carolina. A quick dinner table consensus was reached. Mom and J had other work responsibilities, so I extended my vacation and headed with Dad down to see how things stood at the Farm. Reports weren't promising. Power, phones, and trees were down, and we had no idea how bad things really were. Phone reports from the cousins also weren't too reassuring, and they had their own properties to manage.
The actual devastation is hard to describe. Huge swatches of forest were destroyed, as if micro-bursts or mini-tornadoes had swept across the area around the farm. The oak my brothers and I had romped around as kids lost a huge branch that almost took out the carport. Another huge tree was completed uprooted and fell over, knocking the packhouse off its foundation supports.
There were many marvels that we attribute to Grandpa Jack (d. 197?), Uncle Hyrum (d. 1993), and the angels. Had Grandma been in the back rooms, and had the branch gone down just inches to the south, the roof could have gone in. More importantly, had the tree gone down in the direction of ALL THE OTHER TREES IN A 3 MILE AREA, the house would have been destroyed and we would have lost Grandma in 1996. We polled the family and neighbors, and that seems to be the ONLY tree in the area that fell in a perfectly 180 degree OPPOSITE direction of the micro-burst destruction. A whole HOST of Somebodies were protecting Grandma that day.
The initial hurricane clean-up crew consisted of three generations of Grandma Ollie's extended family, with about 20 people showing up at times ... and she outworked us all! It's amazing that the only injuries were blisters, bruises, aches and pains, and exhaustion. We were not in condition to keep up with a seasoned farm wife, to be out in the humidity, or to be scaling trees and trucks to use hand saws to clear up the yard. It was back-breaking work, but a great bonding time on the farm.
As you can read below, work on cleaning up the yard took months, with my 80-something grandmother still hacking away at the stumps, mowing the lawn, and bossing people around!
4 May 1997
[The Farm
Pikeville, NC]
Dear Granddaughter,
Do like to think of week you were here with your dad. Nice to have helping hands with the work. Made the place look good. Have almost dug up apple tree stump.
When your dad and Mom were here got most of Big Stump Burned. ‘Twas a suprise[sic] how well it Burned.
Back yard looks Better all the time. Big Blocks of wood to lay and rot. Can’t move them. Your dad did get them more out of the field.
Carl [one of Mom's 36 first cousins] and Family are packing things into Moving van to[sic] soon or early leaving tomarrow[sic], I feal[sic] like I’d be in way so am not going down to say by[sic]. They were not at Church today either.
Oh we had a big blowing rain yesterday. Things looked wet for a while. Sun out today and so things look better by this evening.
I have mowed yard three or four times already. How clover weeds and grass grows. Riding mower makes work easer[sic].
Supose[sic] your Mom showed you the quilt we Tied when she was here. Baby quilt. Prety[sic].
I feal[sic] better. But is hard to get rid of snifles[sic]. Changeable weather. Do feal[sic] good most of time.
Hope you are well and Happy. What Classes are you taking now? [Was I taking classes in 1997? I can't remember -- unless it was the film class I was auditing at the alma mater.]
Thanks again for all you did while here.
Take Care
Love
GrandMa
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